An Empirical Research On The Insurance Market Structure, Conduct And Performance Of China

I. Aim of ResearchUp to the present, research on China's insurance industry has centred primarily on the relationship between supply and demand, market models, and the condition of both insurance market development and analysis on the actual conditions of the distribution of market share. By contrast, there is a lack of sufficient theoretical analysis and concrete data on the intrinsic relationship between the market conduct of insurance companies, said companies' market performance, and the composition of the insurance market. This gap in the necessary theoretical and empirical basis for government-led formulation of insurance industry organisation policy, as well as the formulation of policy for development and for competition strategies by insurance enterprises, may lead to blind or irrational policy decisions, thus posing a threat to the healthy development of China's insurance market. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive profile of the composition of China's insurance market (including its market concentration ratio, market entry barriers, and its property rights systems), the market conduct of insurance enterprises as well as the historical vicissitudes and the actual conditions of market performance. This essay investigates the defining features of the market composition in Taiwan province, as well as in Europe, North America, and other regions and countries. Through the use of historical and international comparative analysis, this paper identifies goals and content concerning China's insurance industry organisation strategy which are theoretically sound and which have a concrete basis in fact. Moreover, by way of integrating research into the actual conditions of China's insurance market and the trends of its development, the paper also identifies the critical facets of short and medium term competition strategies and of long term development.II. Basic Methodology and ApproachThis paper focusses on the historical development of the domesticinsurance market over the past twenty years (1980-2000). Utilising modern industrial organisation strategy theory as the major basis of research this essay systematically analyses entry barriers, the property rights system, market concentration ratio and other key features of the makeup of China's insurance market, the behavioural characteristics and behavioural goals of Chinese insurance companies under differing property rights systems, as well as the current status of and trends in domestic market performance and its interrelationship with market concentration ratio and property rights systems. On the basis of a structure-conduct-performance analysis model, the paper puts forth scientific and rational proposals on goals and content regarding domestic insurance industry organisation strategy. This includes an analysis of the significance and critical aspects of the implementation of diversification, reforms in organisational structure and the conversion into joint stock companies of China's domestic insurance enterprises. Aside from a discussion of the aforementioned, the paper also points out which relevant systemic measures require more effort in terms of implementation with regard to resolving issues such as competition for talented employees, investment strategies, service and product innovation and other aspects of competition strategy.III. Logical StructureThe paper is divided into ten chapters with thirty sections:Chapter one The Framework of Insurance Market Theory and Methods of Research It provides an introduction to the entire paper and delineates how the investigation is conducted based on the structure-conduct-performance model.Chapter two The Growth in Scale of the Domestic Insurance Market and its Structural ChangesIt presents an analysis of two periods of the domestic insurance market's expansion in 1980 to 1990 and 1991-2000 and of its transition in these two periods from monopoly to oligopoly. Chapter three The First Area of Insurance Market Structure Research: Market Concentra...