Purpose – Aims to address a number of issues related to the use of spectral analysis in the study of insurance cycles. Design/methodology/approach – Spectral analysis has seldom been used in the study of insurance cycles. This may be due to the fact that no statistical test is readily...

Purpose – Using a game-theoretic model of insurance markets, Powers and Shubik in 2001 derived a mathematical expression for the optimal number of reinsurers for a given number of primary insurers. Subsequently in 2005, Powers and Shubik showed analytically that, for large numbers of primary...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the characteristics of the equilibrium between demand and supply for a reciprocal insurance firm. Design/methodology/approach – The model developed assumes a fixed number of individuals with identical characteristics and of constant...

Purpose – This paper seeks to use spectral analysis as an alternative method to analyze whether underwriting results exhibit a cyclical behavior for the property-liability insurance industry and by lines of business. In addition, aims to use the AR(2) process to obtain information about...

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the practical importance of the finding of Mayers and Smith, that underinvestment is a problem when debt exposed to bankruptcy is part of the financial structure. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines critically the assumptions underlying the...

Purpose – This article aims to report the results of research into the effect of expanding the traditional models for valuation of simple securities to include the effect of taxation of the cash flows from investing and the possibility of bankruptcy of the issuer. Design/methodology/approach...

Previous studies have shown that the pattern of first day returns to initialpublic offerings is consistent with the hypotheses of underpricing and price support. We examine two different periods, 1975–1984 and 1996–2002, and find that in each case the measures of price support and...