The 2008 financial crisis brought a focus on the potential for a large insurance firm to contribute to systemic risk. Among the concerns raised was that a negative shock to insurers could lead to a 'fire sale' of corporate bonds, a market where insurers are among the largest participants. This...

Lebensversicherungsunternehmen (LVU) in Deutschland verwalten zu Anfang des Jahres 1990 Kapitalanlagen im Wert von über 410 Milliarden DM. Dabei haben sie ihre Kapitalanlagepolitik an den in § 54 Abs. 1 Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz (VAG) kodifizierten Grundsätzen auszurichten: Sicherheit,...

We use data from the Survey of Consumer Finance and Survey of Income Program Participation to show that young households with children are under-insured against the risk that an adult member of the household dies. We develop a tractable macroeconomic model with human capital risk, age-dependent...

We use a two factor model of life insurer stock returns to measure interest rate risk at U.S. and U.K. insurers. Our estimates show that interest rate risk among U.S. life insurers increased as interest rates decreased to historically low levels in recent years. For life insurers in the U.K., in...

We use data from the Survey of Consumer Finance and Survey of Income Program Participation to show that young households with children are under-insured against the risk that an adult member of the household dies. We develop a tractable macroeconomic model with human capital risk, age-dependent...