The financial and economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 has taken its toll on the South African economy. The economy contracted for the first time since 1998, and entered recession during the fourth quarter of 2008. The GDP contraction was soon transmitted to the labor market. Between the second...

In jüngster Vergangenheit hat die Versicherungswirtschaft einen grundlegenden Wandel durchlaufen. Deregulierung, Globalisierung sowie Substitutionskonkurrenz führten zu einem verschärften Wettbewerb um Marktanteile bei sinkenden Gewinnmargen. Aufgrund dieser neuen Wettbewerbsdynamik und den...

We examine how long-term life insurance contracts can be designed to incorporate uncertain future bequest needs. An individual who buys a life insurance contract early in life is often uncertain about the future financial needs of his or her family, in the event of an untimely death. Ideally,...

Motivated by a recent demographic study establishing a link between macroeconomic fluctuations and the mortality index kt in the Lee-Carter model, we assess the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on the solvency of a life insurance company. Liabilities in our stochastic simulation framework...

Whole life insurance plays an important role in household saving. However, empirical evidence on its determinants is scarce. This paper studies two natural experiments to identify the effects of tax incentives and bequest motives on life-insurance demand. An unanticipated tax reform in 2000...

Vor dem Hintergrund des demographischen und erwerbsstrukturellen Wandels und den damit verbundenen Finanzierungsproblemen der gesetzlichen Alterssicherungssysteme ist in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ein Paradigmenwechsel vollzogen und den Systemen der betrieblichen und der privaten...

We arranged for trained undercover men and women to pose as potential clients and visit all 65 local financial advisory firms in Hong Kong, China. At financial planning firms, but not at securities firms, women were more likely than men to receive advice to buy only individual or only local...

Sleep is a source of energy. This energy is available in limited quantity and individuals must decide when it should be renewed and when it should be consumed. The economics of sleeping and the economics of resource extraction are one and the same. More specifically, utility maximization with...

Labour demand and wages depend on the state and volatility of relationships within firms. Good relationships lower profit-maximising wages and raise firms’ profits and hence constitute an asset to the firm. Wages are lower because when people enjoy collaborating in the absence of wage...