Due to the highly skewed and heavy-tailed distributions associated with the insurance claims process, we evaluate the Rubinstein-Leland (RL) model for its ability to improve the cost of equity estimates of insurance companies because of its distribution-free feature. Our analyses show that there...

Concentration in the U.S. insurance industry’s market shares and ownership, coupled with a network interlocking ownership relationships by institutional investors, raise social concerns. Studying the relationship between Tobin’s q and corporate governance features of the industry, we fail to...

We present a European call option that is defined on a pension annuity insurance contract. This option gives the holder of the contract the opportunity to buy a pension annuity benefit for a given (strike) price at the age of retirement or any other age. Thus instead of contributed monthly...

This article examines the efficiency changes of U.S. life insurers before and after demutualization in the 1980s and 1990s. We use two frontier approaches (the value-added approach and the financial intermediary approach) to measure the efficiency changes. In addition, we use Malmquist indices...

This paper examines equity response to the occurrence of large non operating losses. As with previous studies, significant negative abnormal returns are detected around the occurrence of large losses. The paper extends the literature by examining issues not previously investigated. For a subset...

A simplified financial-economic theory of the insurance firm under uncertainty is used to determine whether ambiguity about the expected claim frequency and/or the claim severity distribution for potential insured losses has any impact on the insurance rate. The model shows that the risk charge...

This study examines the relation between corporate governance and performance and the relation between ownership structure and performance in the Taiwanese life insurance industry. We use the value-added approach of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure performance. For our first...

An overview of the insurance market in China is provided, with a special focus on issues associated with China's accession to the WTO. Despite the rapid growth of China's insurance industry, its insurance market remains relatively underdeveloped. After China's accession to the WTO, the average...