This paper, instead of focusing on agency cost, analyzes the role of risk-sharing under problems of enforceability (default) to explain the optimal determination of capital structure. Optimal contract structure presents equity and debt.

This Paper studies the incentives for transparency under different forms of corporate governance in a context of product market competition. This Paper endogenizes the governance and financial structure of firms and determines a strategic decision on the degree of transparency in a context of...

This work examines the leverage ratios of firms covered by the 1998 SSBF Survey. We find that small firms in general are significantly more levered than their larger counterparts in an industry-matched Compustat sample, but the difference is at least partially explained by differences in...

Some have argued that recent increases in credit risk transfer are desirable because they improve the diversification of risk. Others have suggested that they may be undesirable if they increase the risk of financial crises. Using a model with banking and insurance sectors, we show that credit...

The paper reviews the evolution in insurance economics over the past 25 years, by first recalling the situation in 1973, then presenting the developments and new approaches which flourished since then. The paper argues that these developments were only possible because steady advances were made...

This article examines, under the Dual Theory of Choice (Yaari (1987)), the classical results and their extensions on self-insurance, self-protection and market insurance obtained by Ehrlich and Becker (1972) under the expected utility hypothesis. In particular, background risk, non-reliability,...

Severe natural catastrophes in the early nineties have brought about a lack of financial capacity in the catastrophe line of the global reinsurance market. The finance industry reacted to this situation by issuing innovative products designed to spread the excess risk more widely among...

We study the dependence between the downside risk of European banks and insurers. Since the downside risk of banks and insurers differs, an interesting question from a supervisory point of view is the risk reduction that derives from diversification within large banks and financial...

The future course of old-age mortality is of great importance to public sector expenditures in countries where old-age programs, such as Social Security and Medicare in the US, account for large fractions of the public budget. This paper argues that the competitive market prices of motality...

This paper uses direct evidence on the self-perceived and actual mortality risk of individuals, as well as the price and quantity of their life insurance, to evaluate whether asymmetric information is a barrier to trade in insurace markets.