Board of directors and profitability ratio of Thai non-life insurers

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of board of directors' characteristics on the profitability ratio of Thai public non-life insurers. A Hausman test was employed on the selection between fixed and random effects in our panel data for a sample of 208 firm-years from 2000 to 2012. Return on total assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on net written premiums (RNP) were used as proxies for the profitability ratio. The findings of our analyses revealed positively related and statistically significant results between board size and the profitability ratio. On the contrary, board meeting frequency was negatively related and statistically significant with ROA and RNP. In addition, firm size was negatively related and statistically significant with the profitability ratio.