汽车专业 翻译 中英文（全）competition and regulation in the korean automobile insurance industry 学位论文.doc

05/31/07 Competition and Regulation in the Korean Automobile Insurance Industry Wondon Lee* Soga Ewedemi** * Associate Professor of Insurance, Daegu University, South Korea wlee@daegu.ac.kr ** Professor of Finance, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A ewedemi@clarion.edu 1. Introduction The Korean property and liability insurance industry had assets of US$49 billion and direct premiums written of US$25 billion in 2005, which was the second largest market in Asia and 10th in the world (Swiss Re, 2006). Automobile insurance accounted for 35.2% of the total premiums written, which is the important business line in the Korean property and liability insurance industry. Since the monopolized market was opened to all the property and liability insurance companies in 1983, the average growth rate of direct premium is over 18%. This rapid growth rate is attributed mainly to the dramatic increase in automobile usage and compulsory automobile liability insurance. However, automobile insurance has not been a profitable business since the advent of competition in the market in 1983. During 23 fiscal years including year 2005 the automobile insurance industry experienced underwriting profits only two times in 1997 and 1998. Although underwriting losses have been totally or partially offset by investment profits, the industry has been believed to experience chronic operating losses. The huge aggregate losses have been based on complaints about a strict government regulation and demands for changes and improvements in the regulation, including increases in premium (the price of insurance). In fact the history of the Korean automobile insurance industry is the history of deregulation on the industry. However, in spite of the series of deregulation the situation has not been much improved. The continual unsatisfactory performance could be ascribed to the more fundamental problems in this industry. Unfortunately it is hard to find