MODERATING EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ESG AND THE GLOBAL INSURANCE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

We use an enhanced Russell model data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the efficiency scores of 75 global life and non-life insurance companies as a measure of business performance (BP) from 2018 to 2022. On top of cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, we conduct ordinary least squares regression to examine the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and BP, while assessing the moderating role of human capital (HC) in this relationship. Our findings show that low social activity levels would lead to better BP, and the moderating effect of HC on ESG-BP relationships is mixed.