The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA's) supervisors use expert judgment to rate the risk of failure of general insurers (GIs). Using statistical data, we model the determinants of GI ratings and solvency cover and find: (1) sufficient predictive power in statistical data to...

We develop and test a statistical model to identify Australian general insurers experiencing financial distress over the 1999-2001 period. Using a logit model and two measures of financial distress we are able to predict, with reasonable confidence, the insurers more likely to be distressed....

Incomplete observations are a common feature of financial applications that use survey response, annual report, and proprietary banking and security issue and pricing data. Finance researchers use a variety of procedures, including deleting offending observations and imputing ad hoc values, that...

We examine the determinants of underwriter spreads on straight/fixed rate Eurobonds issued by U.S. firms between 1990 and 1998. We find that underwriter spreads are influenced by: (i) the governing law as it influences the timely and orderly renegotiation of contract terms, with bonds governed...

This paper investigates the effect of ownership structure on the cost efficiency of Australian building societies using the stochastic econometric frontier approach. Contrary to the expense preference hypothesis, mutuallyâ€owned societies were found to be, on average, more cost efficient than...

Linear quadratic optimal control techniques are applied to a simplified reduced form model of the Australian money market to examine the tradeoff between improved monetary control and interest rate variability. We focus on a series of questions. Is quarterly control of the money supply feasible...