Essays on Regulation and Capital in the Property-liability Insurance Industry

Essays on Regulation and Capital in the Property-liability Insurance Industry PDF Author: Jiang Cheng
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Essays on Regulation and Capital in the Property-liability Insurance Industry

Essays on Regulation and Capital in the Property-liability Insurance Industry PDF Author: Jiang Cheng
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description


Essays in Internal Capital Markets in the U.S. Property-Liability Insurance Industry

Essays in Internal Capital Markets in the U.S. Property-Liability Insurance Industry PDF Author: Jiyun Lydia Lim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
The first part of the dissertation examines whether M&As are related to internal capital markets by analyzing the changes in internal capital market utilization following M&As in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry during the period 2000-2015. The results suggest that both acquiring insurers and targets increase internal reinsurance and undergo more intragroup capital transactions after the M&A. The probit analysis provides evidence that insurers with low internal capital market utilization via reinsurance are more likely to engage in M&As as an acquirer or a target. This indicates that acquiring insurers with small internal capital markets have an incentive in making acquisitions to expand their internal capital markets. This study finds empirical evidence that internal capital market use is one of the determinants of M&As by utilizing internal transaction data of U.S. property-liability insurers. The second part of the dissertation investigates the relationship between executive compensation and internal capital market efficiency in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry for the period 2000-2015. The results indicate that executive compensation has a significant and positive influence on the efficiency of internal capital allocation. An executive's incentive for efficient internal capital allocation is different depending on the type of compensation, the size of internal capital markets, and external events such as the global financial crisis. These findings are robust to corrections for potential endogeneity bias. I also find evidence of a non-linear relationship between efficiency and the size of internal capital markets. Internal capital markets should continue to expand as long as the benefit of relaxing credit constraints is greater than the cost of managing larger internal capital markets. Overall, the result of the study is consistent with the view that better alignment of executive incentives with shareholder interests leads to efficient internal capital allocation.

Essays in the Economics of Property-liability Insurance and Life Insurance Markets

Essays in the Economics of Property-liability Insurance and Life Insurance Markets PDF Author: Zhen Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
The first part of the dissertation investigates cost experience in the US life and health insurance industry over the period 1998-2012. We generally test the difference in expenses among different distribution systems, which mainly consists of independent agency, broker, career agency, exclusive agency, and direct writing. We check to see if cost, revenue and profit efficiency differences are associated with different distribution methods. Cost, revenue, and profit efficiencies are estimated by Data Envelopment Analysis. Unlike the results in the property and liability insurance industry, the cost difference is insignificant among distribution systems. Results on cost efficiency and revenue efficiency support the market imperfection hypothesis, which says that the market imperfections such as entry barriers, price regulation, or search costs cause the coexistence of different distribution systems. The second part of the dissertation examines the relationship between mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and underwriting cycles in the P-L insurance industry. In a soft market, capital is relatively high. This leads to an increase in the number of M&A transactions and the probability that managers conduct non-value-increasing M&As. We test this proposition by analyzing the associations between volumes of M&A deals, and returns associated with M&As and underwriting cycle. The results show that the numbers of M&As are negatively related with the premium rate changes and positively related with changes in the combined ratio. We also find that the cumulative abnormal returns around the announcement date of M&As are smaller for the shareholders of insurer acquirers in a soft market. Even more, we find that the market reaction of M&As is less sensitive to agency problems in a hard market than in a soft market.

ESSAYS IN THE ECONOMICS OF U.S. PROPERTY-LIABILITY INSURANCE INDUSTRY

ESSAYS IN THE ECONOMICS OF U.S. PROPERTY-LIABILITY INSURANCE INDUSTRY PDF Author: Rui Ju
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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Book Description
This dissertation consists of two topics. Chapter 1 examines the relationship between contingent commission use and underwriting performance as well as underwriting risk using data from 2005 to 2016. Top brokers were banned from receiving contingent commissions following the inquiry in 2004 led by Eliot Spitzer, former New York Attorney-General. But the ban raised concerns about whether it created a level playing field across the industry, as smaller brokers continued taking them. In addition, despite the possible conflicts of interest, contingent commissions have also been recognized as a way to better align agent and insurer incentives. Regulators agreed to relax the terms for the leading brokers in 2010, resulting in a less onerous compliance regime for contingent commission use. It is important to study the effectiveness of contingent commission use on improving underwriting performance. This study finds strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that contingent commissions' usage is associated with better underwriting performance as well as lower underwriting risk. This study also finds a curvilinear relationship between underwriting performance and the level of contingent commission use. Chapter 2 investigates the impact of executive overconfidence on capital structure decisions and reinsurance purchases using a sample of 37 publicly-traded property-liability insurance groups for the period 2002 to 2016. This study finds that insurance firms with overconfident executives have significantly higher leverage ratios than those without overconfident executives. This study also finds evidence that insurance firms with overconfident executives cede more reinsurance, and this evidence is stronger for insurers with more limited business capacity than those with ample business capacity. The results of this study also indicate that overconfident executives prefer internal reinsurance to external reinsurance. This research provides evidence that personality traits of executive impact capital structure decisions and reinsurance purchases for insurance firms, which should be of interest to policyholders and regulators.

ESSAYS ON THE U.S. PROPERTY-CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY

ESSAYS ON THE U.S. PROPERTY-CASUALTY INSURANCE INDUSTRY PDF Author: Yingrui Lu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
This dissertation includes two chapters. In Chapter 1, "Information Risk and the Cost of Equity Capital Revisited: Evidence from the U.S. Property-Casualty Insurance Industry", I revisit the relationship between information risk and the cost of equity capital in the U.S. property-casualty (P-C) insurance industry. Eckles, Halek and Zhang (2014) find that information risk has no effect on the cost of equity using a sample of U.S. P-C insurers. Following their approach, we decompose information risk into innate and discretionary components. I find that innate information risk affects the cost of equity capital through two opposing channels. On the one hand, innate information risk directly increases an insurer's cost of equity capital by increasing investors' assessment of the riskiness of the insurer's future cash flows. On the other hand, innate information risk indirectly decreases the insurer's cost of equity capital by changing its production so that the assessed riskiness of the firm's future cash flows are reduced. This (negative) indirect effect depends on factors that influence the insurer's underwriting decisions. My empirical results provide supporting evidence for a significant, positive direct effect of innate information risk, while the magnitude of the (negative) indirect effect increases with the insurer's proportion of long-tail business and decreases with its affiliated reinsurance usage. As to the impact of discretionary information risk, my results are mixed. I also find that, on average, the overall effect of information risk on the cost of equity capital for property-casualty insurers is significant and negative. In Chapter 2, "Coordination of Capital, Earnings, and Taxes in the U.S. Property-Casualty Insurance Industry", I investigate how property-casualty (P-C) insurers manage discretionary tools to achieve regulatory capital, earnings, and tax planning goals. I examine one accrual tool, loss reserve errors, together with two real transaction tools: realized capital gains (losses) from investment sales, and capital contributions. I find that when P-C insurers have lower pre-managed capital levels, managers will report income-increasing loss reserve errors, recognize more realized capital gains and receive more capital contributions. When P-C insurers have lower pre-managed earnings, managers will report income-increasing loss reserve errors. When P-C insurers have higher marginal tax rates, managers will report income-decreasing loss reserve errors and recognize more realized capital losses. Moreover, I analyze the effect of ownership structures on the degree of managerial discretion for various reporting goals. My analysis includes three different types of ownership structures: public, private stock and mutual firms. I find that, through the use of capital contributions, public firms are more aggressive in capital management, while mutual firms are less aggressive in capital management than private stock firms. In terms of using the other two tools, compared to private stock firms, public firms do not manage capital less aggressively; they do not manage earnings more aggressively; they do not manage taxes less aggressively. Compared to private stock firms, mutual firms are less aggressive in capital management; they are more aggressive in earnings management; they are less aggressive in tax management.

Essays in Insurance Regulation

Essays in Insurance Regulation PDF Author: Spencer L. Kimball
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurance
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Essays on Risk-Based Capital Standards, Group Regulation, and the Measurement of Model Uncertainty in the Insurance Industry

Essays on Risk-Based Capital Standards, Group Regulation, and the Measurement of Model Uncertainty in the Insurance Industry PDF Author: Caroline Franziska Siegel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
During the last decade, the financial industry has faced several financial crises. Insurance supervisors have reacted by revising the existing regulatory frameworks as well as developing and implementing new solvency models. The economic research of the challenges to the insurance industry arising from these new regulatory systems is therefore an important and contemporary task. This doctoral thesis, which comprises four research papers, seeks to gain new insights into the field of regulation and the solvency assessment of insurance companies. The first paper "The Impact of Private Equity on a Life Insurer's Capital Charges under Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test" is an empirical analysis of the performance of the asset class private equity regarding both its risk-return profile and its impact on an insurer's capital requirements under the Solvency II framework of the European Union as well as Switzerland's Solvency Test. We review the standard market risk models and also propose an approach for an internal model. We show that although the risk-return profile of private equity suggests a solid performance in relation to various other asset classes, the standard approaches of Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test overly penalize the asset class in terms of capital requirements. The following two research papers pertain to the area of solvency assessment for insurance groups. The paper "Solvency Assessment for Insurance Groups in the United States and Europe - a Comparison of Regulatory Frameworks" is an overview and comparison of three innovative group solvency frameworks: the National Association of Insurance Commissioners approach of the United States, the group structure model of Switzerland, and the Solvency II proposal on group solvency assessment. This comparison is based on the recently established criteria for a thorough group solvency approach of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors' Issues Paper.

Current Events in Insurance

Current Events in Insurance PDF Author: Gregory P. Nini
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Essays on risk-based capital standards, group regulation, and the measurement of model uncertainty in the insurance industry : [kumulative Dissertation]

Essays on risk-based capital standards, group regulation, and the measurement of model uncertainty in the insurance industry : [kumulative Dissertation] PDF Author: Caroline Franziska Siegel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Macroprudential Solvency Stress Testing of the Insurance Sector

Macroprudential Solvency Stress Testing of the Insurance Sector PDF Author: Mr.Andreas A. Jobst
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 149832455X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
Over the last decade, stress testing has become a central aspect of the Fund’s bilateral and multilateral surveillance work. Recently, more emphasis has also been placed on the role of insurance for financial stability analysis. This paper reviews the current state of system-wide solvency stress tests for insurance based on a comparative review of national practices and the experiences from Fund’s FSAP program with the aim of providing practical guidelines for the coherent and consistent implementation of such exercises. The paper also offers recommendations on improving the current insurance stress testing approaches and presentation of results.