This paper analyses investment strategies of three types of institutional investors pension funds, life insurers and non-life insurers over the period 1999-2005. We use balance sheet and cash flow data, including purchases and sales of equity, fixed income and real estate. We trace asset...

Insurance companies, reinsurance companies and insurance-reinsurance companies authorized in one EU Member States can carry out insurance or reinsurance activity in another member state, under the right of establishment and freedom to provide services. The right of establishment of an insurer...

Both public and private sector organizations are struggling with knowledge lossresulting from employee turnover. Moreover, costs of recruiting, of lost productivity andtraining to replace employees can reach huge values. Capturing knowledge inside anorganization seems to be one of the main...

We investigate the capital structure of 350 Dutch insurers during the period 1995-2005. Our main findings are: (1) a small company size, a mutual organisation, high profitability, large equity investments, and being a fire insurer, all contribute to higher solvency margins; (2) minimum solvency...

This paper investigates contagion of major financial institutions by focusing on extreme stock return co-movements. Our measure of contagion within banking and insurance sectors is the number of coincidences of daily extreme returns that cannot be explained by a linear propagation model of...

This paper investigates systemic risk in the Dutch financial sector by focusing on extreme returns of the major financial institutions. Our measure of systemic risk is the number of coincidences of extreme returns that cannot be explained by a linear model of constant correlation. By using a...

It has been suggested that domestic liabilities may be an important factor in explaining the existence of a home bias in international investment portfolios. This paper provides a theoretical justification for this claim in a mean-variance framework. However, an empirical analysis for the UK...

This chapter focuses on institutional investors in the German financial markets. Institutional investors are specialized financial intermediaries who collect and manage funds on behalf of small investors toward specific objectives in terms of risk, return and maturity. The major types of...

We discuss the existence of a pooling equilibrium in a two-period model <p> of an insurance market with asymmetric information. We solve the model <p> numerically. We pay particular attention to the reasons for non-existence <p> in cases where no pooling equilibrium exists. In addition to the phenom- <p>...</p></p></p></p>

This paper tests the efficiency associated with the role of memory in long-term contracting. Bonus-malus schemes in automobile insurance are examples of contracts that use memory. During the eighties different contributors (Lambert, 1983, Rogerson, 1985, Boyer, and Dionne, 1989) showed how...