We examine data for the year ended December 31, 1997 for 80 publicly traded property-liability insurers that have Best financial strength ratings of their consolidated insurance-operating subsidiaries. These firms employ a holding company structure, in which a parent owns the stock of multiple...

Life insurers hold the majority of private debt. Lenders in the private debt market must have the ability to evaluate the credit quality of borrowers and to perform ongoing risk monitoring. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of private debt holdings in the life insurance...

Insurance regulators, policyholders, and investors are interested in the ability of insurers to fulfill their financial obligations. Economic and finance theory suggests that, all else equal, more efficient firms should be financially stronger firms. Efficiency scores represent a quantitative...

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...