What Effect Did AIG's Bailout,and the Preceding Events,Have on Its Competitors?

We examine the effect of American International Group's (AIG) bailout, and the events leading up to it, on its insurance industry rivals. The reaction of rivals to AIG‐related events depends on the relative strength of two competing effects. The contagion effect implies that rival returns will decrease following negative events affecting AIG. In contrast, competitive effects will occur if investors expect that rivals will be able to benefit from AIG's downfall. Using three‐factor multivariate regression model event study methodology, we find evidence of both effects around several key dates in AIG's decline.     

How broker ability affects institutional trading costs

The present paper shows that broker research and trade execution ability has a significant impact on the cost of institutional trading. The results reveal that there is significant variation in the ability of brokers to control execution costs. Trades executed by brokers with stronger research ability exhibit a higher permanent price impact, whereas those executed by brokers with better execution ability exhibit a lower temporary price impact. Brokers are also found to specialize on an industry level that gives rise to variation in ability within a brokerage house.     

The Determinants of Execution Costs in Short‐Term Money Markets

Prior research attributes the observed negative relation between execution costs and trade size in opaque markets to two factors—information asymmetry and broker‐client relationships. We provide evidence that a trader's ex ante transaction price information and the relationship traders have with their brokers are both significant determinants of a trader's execution costs in an opaque market; however, traders who establish strong relationships with their brokers will achieve a greater reduction in execution costs than traders with ex ante transaction price information. We also find evidence that trade size has little explanatory power after controlling for a trader's ex ante transaction price information and broker‐client relationships.     

Fixed-percentage commissions and moral hazard in residential real estate brokerage

If home sellers cannot monitor real estate brokers' efforts on their behalf, fixed-percentage brokerage commissions can promote welfare by giving brokers an incentive to tailor their services to their clients' demands. This article shows how a competitive broker optimally allocates selling effort across clients who pay different commissions. There is an equilibrium in which clients who value brokerage services more highly offer to pay larger commissions and consequently receive more selling effort from the broker. If clients who are selling higher-priced houses tend to value brokerage services more highly, then this result helps explain the prevalence of fixed-percentage commissions in the residential real estate brokerage industry and suggests that they could emerge in a competitive setting.     

Hedge funds and their prime broker analysts

Are sell-side analysts reluctant to go against the investment views of their hedge funds when these hedge funds are their prime brokerage clients? We show that prime broker analysts tend to upgrade stocks recently bought by their clients. For stocks with upgraded recommendations, post-announcement cumulative abnormal returns are significantly lower for those purchased by the prime brokerage clients. Our results are stronger with high-dollar-turnover clients who generate more trading commissions. We also find that a hedge fund with a large bet on a stock has a stronger incentive to pressure the fund’s prime brokers to issue a favorable recommendation on the stock. Results are not driven by stocks of firms with low analyst coverage or small size.     

BANK FAILURE AND CONTAGION EFFECTS: EVIDENCE FROM HONG KONG

In this paper the influence of three Hong Kong bank failures on stock prices of the colony's banking industry is examined. As deposit insurance is nonexistent in Hong Kong, the world's fourth-largest financial center, an interesting environment is provided for testing contagion effects of bank failure on other healthy financial institutions. By examining contagion effects in an environment void of explicit deposit insurance, this study should provide interesting insights into the resiliency of modern-day financial markets. In turn, insights should also be provided into debates concerning the role and reform of deposit insurance and the rationale for regulation of the financial services industry in general. The results indicate that unexpected bank failure causes significant negative stock price reactions within the banking industry; yet, some banks are less affected than others.     

Broker-client contact and client satisfaction: Are client attitudes towards brokers bullish and bearish with the stock market?

The rapidly changing financial services industry requires an intimate understanding of broker clients in order for brokerage firms to increase and maintain a client base. This study uses a questionnaire in order to determine what clients felt were brokers' strengths and weaknesses in attaining client satisfaction. The results of the survey indicate that clients' perceptions of brokers' honesty, aptitude, knowledge and service to its customers are main determinants of client satisfaction. The overall responses during the bull market and the bear market show little change in client attitudes towards brokers.     

INDUSTRY EFFECTS OF ANALYST STOCK REVISIONS

We examine the industry valuation effects of analyst stock revisions and identify the variables that influence these effects. Our results show that industry rivals experience significant abnormal returns in response to revision announcements. Although the mean stock price response suggests contagion effects, there is also evidence of significant competitive effects. The valuation effects are influenced by the magnitude of the rated firm's announcement return, along with analyst‐specific and industry‐specific characteristics. However, the sensitivity of the valuation effects to these characteristics is conditioned on whether the industry effects are contagious or competitive.     

Information Transfer Effects of Bond Rating Downgrades

This paper investigates information transfer effects of bond rating downgrades measured by equity abnormal returns for industry portfolios. Industry rivals can be subject to two opposing effects, the contagion effect and the competition effect. We find that the net effect is strongly dependent on the original bond rating of the downgraded firm. For investment‐grade (speculative‐grade) firms, industry abnormal equity returns are negative (positive), which implies a predominant contagion (competition) effect. The analysis reveals a rich pattern of positive and negative correlations across negative credit events, which can be used to improve our understanding of portfolio credit risk models.     

The 1985 Ohio S&L Crisis: An Examination of S&L Stockholder Wealth Effects

This paper examines the savings and loan (S&L) equity market reaction to the 1985 Ohio S&L Crisis. In contrast to the expectation of negative abnormal returns associated with contagion, the authors find, during the crisis period, significant positive abnormal returns that are larger for a portfolio of less solvent S&Ls, and a significant decline in systematic risk. The results are consistent with an insurance subsidy hypothesis whereby news of the FSLIC's inadequacy in conjunction with the crisis signaled greater future reluctance by regulators to close large federally-insured S&Ls.     

UK brokers' characteristics: does size matter?

This study provides one of the first insights into how UK brokers' institutional characteristics may impact on the forecasting performance of their financial analysts. The study focuses on brokerage house size and finds it to be a significant factor explaining cross sectional variation in forecasting performance. This is consistent with evidence from several recent US studies (Jacob et al. 1997; Clement, 1999). It is likely that this broker-size effect reflects the resources (human, IT) available to brokers' analysts to support them in their activities. It may also reflect larger brokers' superior access to company managers and information. However, this broker-size effect appears to be significant only for forecasts made at horizons of one year or less. The sign of the earnings change being predicted also has a significant impact: for observations where earnings changes are negative, the broker-size effect is larger than for positive changes, though the effect is significant for both cases. In addition, the form of the model employed here suggests diminishing marginal returns to broker size. More generally, this study reiterates the importance of controlling for the most commonly cited explanatory variables for forecast accuracy, and there is evidence that the heavy industry sectors may be more difficult to forecast, echoing the conclusions of UK studies from the 1980s.     

Market Risk,Interest Rate Risk,and Interdependencies in Insurer Stock Returns: A System‐GARCH Model

We examine market risk, interest rate risk, and interdependencies in returns and return volatilities across three insurer segments within a System‐GARCH framework. Three main results are obtained: market risk is greatest for accident and health (A&H) insurers, followed by life (Life) and property and casualty (P&C) insurers; interest rate sensitivity is negative and greatest for Life insurers; and interdependencies in returns are significant with the magnitude being strongest between P&C and A&H insurers. The implication is that greatest diversification benefits arise between Life and the other segments of the insurance industry. Market risk and interest rate risk for diversified firms are smaller than those for nondiversified firms for both product and geographic diversification.     

An exploratory study into the implementation of internal marketing in small insurance brokers in the United Kingdom

The purpose of this article is to explore internal marketing in the United Kingdom small insurance brokers. Most research on internal marketing has been conducted in large firms. Consequently, research in this field in small firms, particularly small insurance brokers, has been limited despite their significance to the UK economy. In this study, interviews were conducted with 12 UK small general insurance brokers to explore their understanding and implementation of internal marketing. The findings indicate that internal marketing is used informally and that there are some linkages between the elements of internal marketing. This study contributes to knowledge by identifying the impact of the size of broker and the Treating Customers Fairly regulations on the formality of internal marketing. In practice, managers should give more attention to internal marketing activities in order to achieve the company's aims of customer orientation and better performance.     

The Role of Agents and Brokers in the Market for Health Insurance

Health insurance markets in the United States are characterized by imperfect information, complex products, and substantial search frictions. Insurance agents and brokers play a significant role in helping employers navigate these problems. However, little is known about the relations between the structure of the agent/broker market and access and affordability of insurance. This article aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of agents/brokers on health insurance offering decisions of small firms, which are particularly vulnerable to problems of financing health insurance. Using a unique membership database from the National Association of Health Underwriters together with a nationally representative survey of employers, we find that small firms in more competitive agent/broker markets are more likely to offer health insurance and at lower premiums. Moreover, premiums are less dispersed in more competitive agent/broker markets.     

Differences in the Cost of Trade Execution Services on Floor-Based and Electronic Futures Markets

This paper provides new evidence on the impact of electronic trading on brokerage commissions by investigating a sample period that covers the period of transition from floor to electronic trading on the Sydney Futures Exchange. After controlling for liquidity, volatility and broker identity, the introduction of electronic trading remains to be associated with lower brokerage commissions relative to floor markets. The study also provides new evidence on brokerage commissions in futures markets finding that commission fees charged on futures trades average 0.002% of transaction value. This is up to 120 times smaller than the magnitude of brokerage fees charged in stock markets, and considerably lower than the magnitude of brokerage fees assumed for futures markets in previous research. Consistent with existing studies based on stock markets, commissions charged per contract decrease with order size reflecting economies of scale in the provision of brokerage services in futures markets. Commission rates are positively related to bid-ask spreads and price volatility, which proxy for the probability of execution error costs and execution difficulty, respectively. Finally, the identity of the broker is found to be a significant determinant of commissions reflecting different pricing schedules across brokers.     

Further Evidence on Equity Market Contagion: the FSLIC's Solvency and the Liquidity Crisis of Financial Corporation of America

Whether pure contagion is more likely to occur when a federal deposit insurer is severely undercapitalized is an unanswered question. This paper provides evidence on this issue by examining the stock market reaction of savings and loans (S&Ls) to the crisis of Financial Corporation of America (FCA) in 1984, when the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation was fiscally unsound. Consistent with a contingent insurance guarantee hypothesis, the results show large, significant negative abnormal returns (ARs) for a portfolio of high insured deposit S&Ls during FCA's crisis.     

Reputation Effects in Trading on the New York Stock Exchange

Theory suggests that reputations allow nonanonymous markets to attenuate adverse selection in trading. We identify instances in which New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks experience trading floor relocations. Although specialists follow the stocks to their new locations, most brokers do not. We find a discernable increase in liquidity costs around a stock's relocation that is larger for stocks with higher adverse selection and greater broker turnover. We also find that floor brokers relocating with the stock obtain lower trading costs than brokers not moving and brokers beginning trading post‐move. Our results suggest that reputation plays an important role in the NYSE's liquidity provision process.     

Return Dependence and the Limits of Product Diversification in Financial Firms

Copula‐GARCH models indicate dependence between bank returns and those to insurance underwriting, securities brokerage, and mortgage finance increased during the recent crisis. In contrast, dependence between banks and the broader market was little changed. The crisis‐related jump in return dependence within the financial services sector was greatest for banks that had previously appeared the most independent. Larger banks were also especially prone to increased dependence. These findings raise doubts about the ability of financial conglomerates to diversify effectively and highlight the need for policy progress in methods for resolving such institutions should they become illiquid or insolvent.     

The informativeness of brokerage reports: Privately-circulated versus publicly-disseminated news

Using the brokerage analyst reports released from 2014 to 2019, this paper examines the effects of the information role of brokerage firms and the information transmission role of the media on investor trading activity in the Taiwan stock market. Trading activity in the market can be categorized by investor types, including retail investors and institutional investors (foreign institutions, mutual funds, and broker dealers). This paper reviews the “buy the rumor, sell the news” trading strategy, which refers to institutional investors acting as early-informed traders and exhibiting short-term profit-taking characteristics. Notably, mutual funds have the best informational advantage among institutional investors, whose trading activities are significantly and positively related to the abnormal returns around the release of brokerage reports. On the other hand, retail investors may follow the trading activity of institutional investors without making a significant profit. The empirical findings are robust to include several firm and market characteristics. Overall, the empirical results provide in-depth insights into the regulation of brokerage analyst report disclosures.     

Commission-motivated trading patterns of brokers across the production month

The intramonth pattern of broker commission earnings is examined/or a sample of one hundred brokers from a national brokerage firm. It is hypothesized that the structure of broker commissions leads to distortions in trading. The evidence shows that in the last five days of the production month, more than one-fourth of the brokers earned a significantly higher proportion of their monthly commissions than would be expected if trading were uniform across the month. This suggests that the structure of the commission system may lead some brokers to encourage individual investors to unnecessarily trade securities near the end of the production month to boost their commission income.