Using a unique proprietary data set of over 5,400 realized and unrealized venture capital investments between 1980 and 2005, we examine the impact of supply-related factors, i.e. money provided by VC investors, as well as demand-related factors, e.g. entrepreneurial activity, on the return of...

Participating life insurance contracts allow the policyholder to participate in the annual return of a reference portfolio. Additionally, they are often equipped with an annual (cliquet-style) return guarantee. The current low interest rate environment has again refreshed the discussion on risk...

This paper considers the valuation of equity-linked life insurance contracts that offer an annually guaranteed minimum return. The policy premiums are invested in a reference portfolio that is modeled by means of a regime switching Lévy process where the model parameters depend on a continuous,...