An Efficiency Analysis of Takaful Insurance Industry: A Comparative Study

Takaful, which is an Islamic insurance instrument, manages risks in business, according to Shariah (Islamic law) principles and offers risk protection and savings assets. The study analyzes the comparative efficiency of takaful insurance companies by implementing empirical research. The study also provides a comprehensive literature review on the efficiency analysis of the takaful industry. The empirical part presents a wide range of efficiency comparisons of 41 takaful insurance companies in 16 countries between 2009 and 2014. The data enveloping analysis technique is utilized using the rDEA package in the R environment to compute the efficiency score. In the study, the technical efficiency, overall technical efficiency, and pure technical efficiency are calculated and compared per year and per country. The findings of the study suggest that the overall average efficiency scores of takaful companies are considerably high. The study results also indicate that the excess in the consumption of inputs decreases while the deficit in achieved outputs has been declining in the covered period. The study suggests the managers of the takaful companies can use the target efficiency scores, which are calculated by using the DEA analysis, as an ideal reference benchmark for planning their inputs and outputs.