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Economics and business journals focus on publishing papers coming from the fields of applied economics, corporate finance, financial investments, markets, institutions, industrial organization, international trade, marketing and similar.
Business and Economics
Abstract
In our rapidly changing world characterised by globalisation, economic crises, a pandemic, and regional integration, the structure and functioning of welfare states have undergone significant transformations. These forces have shaped and continue to redefine welfare state models worldwide. This study examines the trajectories undertaken by European Union member countries regarding their welfare state models, particularly focusing on the transformative experiences of former communist states. Based on a critical assessment of previous research by a bibliometric analysis, our study comprehensively investigates five categories of factors (fiscal, economic, social, institutional, and political factors) influencing the configuration of welfare state models. Considering these five categories and using cluster analysis, we split European countries into five welfare state models. Our main contribution is the investigation of the migration of European Union states across various welfare state models during the 2003–2021 period. Policymakers can use these results to increase the well-being of former communist states within their clusters.
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.
