Regulatory constraints imposed on insurance companies can induce a collective need to divest downgraded bond issues. Upon a downgrade, corporate bond dealers act as middlemen and provide liquidity by absorbing temporary order-flow imbalances. Limited access to inventory financing can temporarily...

We analyze the benefit to the insured of newly traded, innovative life insurance contracts. On a sequence of yearly reference days, the insured can choose between a guaranteed return (linked to the insurer's asset result) and a capped index participation. The cap is adjusted at the beginning of...

Many insurers disclose Embedded Value reports, a 'capital market-consistent' valuation framework for their life insurance business, to provide investors with additional information. We examine the incremental and relative information content of Embedded Value components in comparison to the...

We examine the impact of demutualization announcements by 13 life insurance companies during 1996-2000 on the value of existing stock-owned life insurance companies and companies in other segments of the insurance industry. Demutualization announcements are associated with negative stock price...

This study examines the market reaction of the European insurance industry to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe. Using an event study methodology, we find that investors in the insurance industry reacted favorably to most of the events that led to the...

This paper shows that during episodes of market turmoil 13F institutional investors with short trading horizons sell their stockholdings to a larger extent than 13F institutional investors with longer trading horizons. This creates price pressure for stocks mostly held by short horizon...

We investigate the impact that the publication of the Bank of England's Financial Stability Report (FSR) has on the stock returns and credit default swap spreads of UK financial institutions. Examining a sample of 73 UK-listed banks and other financial institutions, we find that publication of...

The recent Covid-19 outbreak with significant increase of global uncertainties poses many challenges for financial sectors. Many supervisors took the measures aiming to safeguard resilience of financial institutions by requesting postponements any dividend distributions until uncertainties about...

This paper examines how liquidity and investors' heterogeneous liquidity preferences interact toaffect asset pricing. Using data on insurers' corporate bond holdings, we find that the illiquidity ofcorporate bond portfolios varies widely and persistently across insurers, and is related to...

Using an agent-based model (ABM) with fundamentalists and chartists, prone to develop bubbles and crashes, we demonstrate the usefulness of direct market intervention by a policy maker, documenting strong performance in preventing bubbles and drawdowns and augmenting significantly the welfare of...