This paper investigates economies of scope in the US insurance industry over the period 1993-2006. We test the conglomeration hypothesis, which holds that firms can optimize by diversifying across businesses, versus the strategic focus hypothesis, which holds that firms optimize by focusing on...

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the market-value relevance of frontier efficiency scores and to test hypotheses from corporate control and production theory by analyzing the market response to US property–liability (P–L) insurer acquisitions and divestitures....

The paper examines efficiency, productivity and scale economies in the U.S. property-liability insurance industry. Productivity change is analyzed using Malmquist indices, and efficiency is estimated using data envelopment analysis. The results indicate that the majority of firms below median...

This paper studies the performance of publicly held firms in the US property-liability insurance industry by analyzing companies that issued initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1994 to 2005, using private firms as the benchmark. I investigate ex ante determinants and ex post effects of IPOs on...

This paper examines the role of corporate governance in the demutualisation wave in the U.S. life insurance industry during the 1990s and 2000s. The efficiency hypothesis suggests a firm should experience improved performance after demutualisation and managers should only gain from superior...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>This article analyzes the interconnectedness between reinsurers and U.S. property–casualty (P/C) insurers and presents the first detailed examination on the likely impact of major global reinsurer insolvency on the U.S. P/C insurance industry, in order to...</p>

This research investigates the relationship shared by contingent commission usage and insurer performance. We assess performance using both frontier efficiency and financial performance measures. Our findings reveal that the relationship is complex and varies across differing insurer business...

The advent of the 2004 Spitzer investigation subjected the use of contingent commissions to significant scrutiny in the public media. This research uses the Spitzer investigation as a point of differentiation and assesses the relationship shared by the abandonment of contingent commissions and...