The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB, former IASC) has been working on a new international standard for insurance contracts based on fair value for about 10 years now. However, details on how to measure such a value in practice were unclear for a long time. A first indication of...

Purpose – In the recent financial crisis, many observers have assigned monetary policy a central role in the crisis. Specifically, they claim that excessively easy monetary policy by the Federal Reserve in the first half of the decade helped to cause a bubble in housing prices in the USA. The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions from private equity and hedge funds. Owing to the recent financial and economic crisis, there is a controversial discussion about the implications of M&As from private equity and hedge...

Excessive risk-taking in the banking industry has led to the default of firms and to increased systemic risks as demonstrated during the previous financial crisis. The causes of this excessive risk taking are numerous and complex. However, it is now consensus that inappropriate remuneration...

Purpose – It is essential for the welfare and growth of a society that it is able to share risk efficiently in the economy. However, extreme events have increased enormously during the last decades, so that catastrophe risks seem to become uninsurable in a free-market economy. With...

Considering mixed results of several studies that analyse the influence of total leverage on stock returns, we focus on a more differentiated ratio in our approach: 'total debt to (total capital + long term debt)' [TD/(TC + LTD)] which treats short- and long-term debt differently. In this...

In the empirical research of economic growth, different kinds of measuring factors (quantitative and qualitative) are used for the measurement of human resources. In this essay, we deal with the question which influence on economic growth the quantitative and qualitative measuring factors of...

Ein Grund für die Kostenexplosion in der Beamtenversorgung liegt in dem verstärkten Trend zur Frühpensionierung. Um diesem Trend entgegenzuwirken, wurde analog zu der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung der so genannte Versorgungsabschlag eingeführt. Bei Eintritt in den Ruhestand vor Erreichen...

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, there is a controversial discussion in Germany, whether the state should be liable for such risks like terrorism risks that are generally considered as 'not insurable'. As a result of the events of September 11, the Extremus AG which offers insurance...

Mit dem angedachten Solvabilitätssystem Solvency II werden Versicherer das erforderliche Solvenzkapital anhand ihrer tatsächlichen Risikosituation ermitteln müssen. Um diese zu bestimmen und zu quantifizieren, ist die Berücksichtigung der Abhängigkeiten zwischen den Risiken verschiedener...