The effect of macro-economic conditions in the COVID-19 period on the insurance sector: A comparative analysis of selected EU countries and Turkey

As of the first quarter of 2020, the Covid-19 epidemic, which rapidly affected the world, deeply affected the global economy. The change in economic conditions has rapidly affected the insurance sector, but the level of impact differs according to the economic conditions of the countries. For this reason, macro-economic factors known to affect sectoral performance were determined in the study and their effects on the insurance sector were examined. In order to determine the effects of the macro-economic conditions on the insurance sector during the Covid-19 period, a study was conducted on Turkey and 19 selected EU member states whose data can be accessed. In the study, the sectoral performance of Turkey and selected EU countries between 2018Q1 and 2021Q2 was analyzed with the entropy-weighted TOPSIS method by distinguishing between non-life and life branches. According to the results of the analysis, the performance values of the countries were compared with Turkey. According to the application results, when life branch insurance performance values are compared with Turkey; It was found that while the Czech Republic lagged behind Estonia, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Luxembourg, it outperformed the same Ireland, Austria and Belgium as Italy. has been done. According to the application results, when non-life insurance performance values are compared with Turkey; While lagging behind Germany, Czech Republic, Estonia, Denmark, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Netherlands, Slovakia, Greece, it outperformed Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Austria and Belgium, where it outperformed Finland, France, Sweden. has been detected. KeyWords: Insurance Industry, Covid-19, Performance Analysis, TOPSIS