We use two reserve error definitions found in the literature to investigate the joint impact of previously studied incentives on the magnitude of reserve error. We find many prior conclusions are dependent upon the restricted setting in which the hypotheses are tested and on the definition of...

This study investigates whether the form of ownership in the life insurance industry (i.e., public, private or mutual) affects the pursuit of capital, earnings, and tax management goals between 1975 and 1991. Results indicate that differences resulting from ownership structure are most...

In a lot of countries, not only one but several sets of accounts have to be prepared and disclosed by (holding) companies. This paper inquires into possibly different economic functions of these sets of accounts by looking at the German dual financial reporting system, in which company (single)...

Insurance contracts often - or even regularly - contain both an insurance component and a so-called deposit component, i.e., they combine insurance coverage with a certain kind of saving process. Due to this feature insurance contracts are difficult to report on in financial statements and...

Income reported to shareholders (book income) and income reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (taxable income) are alternative measures of U.S. corporate economic performance discussed in recent research, academic texts, and by U.S. legislators. In measuring economic performance,...

Calls for eliminating differences between accounting earnings and taxable income in the U.S. have been debated extensively. Proponents of increased book-tax conformity argue that tax compliance will increase and earnings quality will improve. Opponents argue that earnings quality will decline....

Prior literature raises a "puzzle" of high rates of return on corporate political investment, but evidence for this puzzle is largely descriptive in nature. We exploit the setting of the American Jobs Creation Act's passage in 2004 to provide more robust estimates of political returns based on...

The paper discusses the limits to market-based risk transfer in the financial system and the implications for the management of systemic long-term financial risks. Financial instruments or markets to transfer and better manage these risks across institutions and sectors are, as yet, either...