Efficiency drivers in Brazilian insurance: A two-stage DEA meta frontier-data mining approach

This paper investigates the role of heterogeneity in the insurance sector. Here, heterogeneity is represented by different types of insurance provided and regions served. Using a balanced panel data set on Brazilian insurance companies as a case study, results corroborate this underlying hypothesis of heterogeneity's impact on performance. The implications of this research for practitioners and academics are not only addressed in terms of market segmentation-which ones are the best performers-but also in terms of mergers and acquisitions-as long as insurance companies may increase their performance with the right balance of types of insurance offered and regions served.