Intangible assets, known as franchise value in the insurance industry, are critical for insurance companies to acquire new business and survive the fierce market competition. In this study, we analyze how the incentives to protect intangible assets and to go for broke jointly affect their asset...

Initial margin requirements represent: (1) a cost impediment to the wealth constrained investor and (2) a potential way of mitigating excessive volatility. However, prior empirical research finds that margins are not an effective tool in reducing volatility. We consider the possibility that...

This paper investigates the integrity of financial analysts by examining their recommendation responses to large quarterly earnings surprises. Although there is no significant difference in recommendation changes between affiliated and unaffiliated analysts in response to positive earnings...

This paper examines equity response to the occurrence of large non operating losses. As with previous studies, significant negative abnormal returns are detected around the occurrence of large losses. The paper extends the literature by examining issues not previously investigated. For a subset...

Variable annuities have become increasingly important in retirement plans. This paper provides an examination of the investment performance of variable annuities for the period year-end 1973 to year-end 1988. Returns, risk, and selectivity measures are analyzed for the sample of annuities, for...

Many portfolio managers on Wall Street believe that investing in cancelled targets after the termination of mergers and acquisitions is a profitable strategy because arbitrageurs usually unwind their position after the cancellation announcement. While the anecdotal evidence shows that...