Using a unique proprietary data set of over 5,400 realized and unrealized venture capital investments between 1980 and 2005, we examine the impact of supply-related factors, i.e. money provided by VC investors, as well as demand-related factors, e.g. entrepreneurial activity, on the return of...

In this study, we use advance tax rulings (ATR) to investigate the impact of fee-based tax certainty on risky investment decisions of a firm under both cash flow and tax uncertainty. We model and analyze the multi-dimensional nature of tax uncertainty from tax reforms and tax audits in expected...

This paper builds on the advantage of pooling mortality and morbidity risks, and their inherent natural hedge. We focus on classical mutual risk pooling schemes, i.e. tontines, and introduce a "life-care tontine", which in addition to retirement income targets the needs of long-term care...

In a typical equity-linked life insurance contract, the insurance company is entitled to a share of return surpluses as compensation for the return guarantee granted to the policyholders. The set of possible contract terms might, however, be restricted by a regulatory default constraint - a fact...

The probability of a stochastic process to first breech upper and/or lower levels are important quantities for optimal control and risk management. We present those probabilities for regime switching Brownian motion. In the 2- and 3-state model, the Laplace transform of the (single and double...

This paper considers the valuation of equity-linked life insurance contracts that offer an annually guaranteed minimum return. The policy premiums are invested in a reference portfolio that is modeled by means of a regime switching Lévy process where the model parameters depend on a continuous,...

We study a problem of non-concave utility maximization under a fair pricing constraint. The framework finds many applications in, for example, the optimal design of managerial compensation or equity-linked life insurance contracts. Deriving closed-form solutions, we observe that the fair pricing...

For insurance companies in Europe, the introduction of Solvency II leads to a tightening of rules for solvency capital provision. In life insurance, this especially affects retirement products that contain a significant portion of longevity risk (for example conventional annuities). Insurance...

Financial products are priced using risk-neutral expectations justified by hedging portfolios that (as accurate as possible) match the product's payoff. In insurance, premium calculations are based on a real-world best-estimate value plus a risk premium. The insurance risk premium is typically...