This paper investigates economies of scope in the US insurance industry over the period 1993-2006. We test the conglomeration hypothesis, which holds that firms can optimize by diversifying across businesses, versus the strategic focus hypothesis, which holds that firms optimize by focusing on...

This paper investigates economies of scope in the US insurance industry over the period 1993-2006. We test the conglomeration hypothesis, which holds that firms can optimize by operating a diversity of businesses, versus the strategic focus hypothesis, which holds that firms can best add value...

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the market-value relevance of frontier efficiency scores and to test hypotheses from corporate control and production theory by analyzing the market response to US property–liability (P–L) insurer acquisitions and divestitures....

The paper examines efficiency, productivity and scale economies in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry. Productivity change is analyzed using Malmquist indices, and efficiency is estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results indicate that the majority of firms below...