In this paper we test whether the past or future labor market choices of insurance commissioners provides incentives for regulators in states with price regulation to either favor or oppose the industry by allowing prices that differ significantly from what would otherwise be the competitive...

Historical evidence shows insurer insolvencies are, on average, three-to-five times more expensive than those of other financial institutions. Using a unique dataset of insurer insolvencies from 1986 to 1999, we examine the cost of insolvency resolution and the factors driving these costs. We...

This paper analyzes the accuracy of the principal models used by U.S. insurance regulators to predict insolvencies in the property-liability insurance industry and compares these models with a relatively new solvency testing approach--cash flow simulation. Specifically, we compare the risk-based...

In this paper we investigate the extent to which insurance companies utilize financial derivatives contracts in the management of risks. The data set we employ allows us to observe the universe of individual insurer transactions for a class of contracts, namely, those normally through of as...

In this paper we formulate and test a number of hypotheses regarding insurer participation and volume decisions in derivatives markets. Several specific hypotheses are supported by our analysis. We find evidence consistent with the idea that insurers are motivated to use financial derivatives to...

The recent wave of demutualizations has led to the declining significance of the mutual organizational form in the U.S. life insurance industry. In this paper, we consider the different methods of conversion to explore if the motivations were similar across the firms that chose to fully...

What changes are affecting business education today? How are business schools responding to challenges and opportunities of the contemporary environment? We asked six business school leaders to share their thoughts with our readers. Each is a distinguished business educator and leader. They...