
<ns0:uwmetadata xmlns:ns0="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/V1.0" xmlns:ns1="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0" xmlns:ns10="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/provenience/V1.0" xmlns:ns11="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/provenience/V1.0/entity" xmlns:ns12="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/digitalbook/V1.0" xmlns:ns13="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/etheses/V1.0" xmlns:ns2="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/extended/V1.0" xmlns:ns3="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/entity" xmlns:ns4="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/requirement" xmlns:ns5="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/educational" xmlns:ns6="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/annotation" xmlns:ns7="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/classification" xmlns:ns8="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/lom/V1.0/organization" xmlns:ns9="http://phaidra.univie.ac.at/XML/metadata/histkult/V1.0">
  <ns1:general>
    <ns1:identifier>o:37672</ns1:identifier>
    <ns1:title language="en">What drives efficiency of insurance companies in Western Balkan countries?</ns1:title>
    <ns1:language>en</ns1:language>
    <ns1:description language="en">ABSTRACT
This study investigates the technical efficiency of insurance companies in five Western Balkan countries
between 2015 and 2022, using a two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the first
stage, bias-corrected DEA efficiency scores are calculated. The second stage employs the bootstrapped
truncated regression to investigate relationships between firm characteristics and these efficiencies. Our
findings indicate that insurance companies in Serbia exhibit the highest level of technical efficiency, while
their counterparts in Albania display the lowest level. Five key drivers of insurer efficiency are identified:
firm size, specialisation, growth, solvency, and profitability, while the effect of ownership structure is not
statistically significant. Further analysis of returns to scale indicates that most large and medium-sized
insurers in Western Balkan countries operate under decreasing returns to scale (DRS). In contrast, most
small insurers exhibit increasing returns to scale (IRS). This research contributes to a better understanding
of factors influencing the efficiency of insurance companies in developing countries, with implications for
insurance regulators, strategic management within the industry, and future research endeavours.</ns1:description>
    <ns1:description language="en">The research was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovations
of the Republic of Serbia.</ns1:description>
    <ns1:description language="en">SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1556/032.2025.00002.</ns1:description>
    <ns1:keyword language="en">KEYWORDS: insurance industry, technical efficiency, data envelopment analysis (DEA), two-stage double bootstrap, returns to scale, developing countries</ns1:keyword>
    <ns2:identifiers>
      <ns2:resource>1552099</ns2:resource>
      <ns2:identifier>10.1556/032.2025.00002</ns2:identifier>
    </ns2:identifiers>
    <ns2:identifiers>
      <ns2:resource>1552101</ns2:resource>
      <ns2:identifier> 0001-6373</ns2:identifier>
    </ns2:identifiers>
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  <ns1:lifecycle>
    <ns1:upload_date>2026-01-30T07:15:25.372Z</ns1:upload_date>
    <ns1:status>44</ns1:status>
    <ns2:peer_reviewed>no</ns2:peer_reviewed>
    <ns1:contribute seq="0">
      <ns1:role>46</ns1:role>
      <ns1:entity seq="0">
        <ns3:firstname>Marija</ns3:firstname>
        <ns3:lastname>Koprivica</ns3:lastname>
        <ns3:institution>Univerzitet u Beogradu Ekonomski fakultet</ns3:institution>
        <ns3:orcid>0000-0003-4239-2252</ns3:orcid>
      </ns1:entity>
      <ns1:entity seq="1">
        <ns3:firstname>Jelena</ns3:firstname>
        <ns3:lastname>Kočović</ns3:lastname>
        <ns3:institution>Univerzitet u Beogradu Ekonomski fakultet</ns3:institution>
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        <ns3:orcid>0000-0003-3219-4746</ns3:orcid>
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        <ns3:firstname>Tatjana</ns3:firstname>
        <ns3:lastname>Rakonjac Antić</ns3:lastname>
        <ns3:institution>Univerzitet u Beogradu Ekonomski fakultet</ns3:institution>
        <ns3:type>person</ns3:type>
        <ns3:orcid>0000-0003-0371-0115</ns3:orcid>
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  <ns1:technical>
    <ns1:format>application/pdf</ns1:format>
    <ns1:size>463858</ns1:size>
    <ns1:location>https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:37672</ns1:location>
  </ns1:technical>
  <ns1:rights>
    <ns1:cost>no</ns1:cost>
    <ns1:copyright>yes</ns1:copyright>
    <ns1:license>1</ns1:license>
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    <ns1:purpose>70</ns1:purpose>
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      <ns8:faculty>11A03</ns8:faculty>
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  <ns12:digitalbook>
    <ns12:name_magazine language="en">Acta Oeconomica</ns12:name_magazine>
    <ns12:volume>75</ns12:volume>
    <ns12:booklet>1</ns12:booklet>
    <ns12:from_page>19</ns12:from_page>
    <ns12:to_page>43</ns12:to_page>
    <ns12:releaseyear>2025</ns12:releaseyear>
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