This paper considers the question of the most appropriate severity distribution estimator for Loss Distribution Analysis (LDA) on operational risk data. We compare the performance of four severity distribution estimators, three well known and one relatively new and assess their suitability for...

Mutual insurance companies and stock insurance companies are different forms of organized risk sharing: policyholders and owners are two distinct groups in a stock insurer, while they are one and the same in a mutual. This distinction is relevant to raising capital and selling policies in the...

This paper estimates the cost arising from information asymmetry between the lead bank and members of the lending syndicate. In a lending syndicate, the lead bank retains only a fraction of the loan but acts as the intermediary between the borrower and the syndicate participants. Theory predicts...

Demographic risk, i.e., the risk that life tables change in a nondeterministic way, is a serious threat to the financial stability of an insurance company having underwritten life insurance and annuity business. The inverse influence of changes in mortality laws on the market value of life...

We identify a new benefit of index or parametric triggers. Asymmetric information between reinsurers on an insurer's risk affects competition in the reinsurance market: reinsurers are subject to adverse selection, since only high-risk insurers may find it optimal to change reinsurers. The result...

This paper studies the influence of the legal environment and economic conditions on the form taken by life insurance company incorporations between 1900 and 1949. It identifies three key factors associated with mutual formation - low initial capital requirements for mutuals, regulatory...

Contracts paying a guaranteed minimum rate of return and a fraction of a positive excess rate, which is specified relative to a benchmark portfolio, are closely related to unit-linked life-insurance products and can be considered as alternatives to direct investment in the underlying benchmark....

Besides market risk, stock market investments in emerging markets are also exposed to political phenomena that are not generally present in the more developed economies. This problem is well known to banks and multinational companies as country or political risk. Assessment techniques in these...

We model the equilibrium price and quantity of risk transfer between firms and financial intermediaries. Value-maximizing firms have downward sloping demands to cede risk, while intermediaries, who assume risk, provide less-than-fully-elastic supply. We show that equilibrium required returns...

This paper considers whether long term care insurance (LTCI) should receive preferences under the tax code. The analysis in this paper supports the view that additional tax incentives should not be used to stimulate the sale of LTCI. First, funding for long term care should not automatically...