The Demise of the Mutual Organizational Form: An Investigation of the Life Insurance Industry

We investigate the role of organizational structure in financial services markets by examining the U.S. life insurance industry. Traditionally, stock and mutual life insurers were equally represented, but now the industry is mainly composed of stock firms. We find operational efficiency, access to capital, and tax savings are important determinants for this shift. The incentive to demutualize differs by the type of conversion: full demutualization is chosen for efficiency and access to capital reasons and partial conversion, using a mutual holding company, is chosen for tax savings. Firm operational efficiency improves after conversion. We also find the efficiency of the stock organizational form dominates that of the mutual structure during our sample period, 1995 to 2004.     

Insurance Derivatives: A New Asset Class for the Capital Markets and a New Hedging Tool for the Insurance Industry

The number and severity of natural catastrophes has increased dramatically over the last decade. As a result, there is now a shortage of capacity in the property catastrophe insurance industry in the U.S. This article discusses how insurance derivatives, particularly the Chicago Board of Trade's catastrophe options contracts, represent a possible solution to this problem. These new financial instruments enable the capital markets to provide the insurance industry with the reinsurance capacity it needs. The capital markets are willing to perform this role because of the new asset class characteristics of securitized insurance risk: positive excess returns and diversification benefits.
The article also demonstrates how insurance companies can use insurance derivatives such as catastrophe options and catastrophe-linked bonds as effective, low-cost risk management tools. In reviewing the performance of the catastrophe contracts to date, the authors report promising signs of growth and liquidity in these markets.     

基于偿付能力的寿险资金战略资产配置

保险资金的战略资产配置是基于公司风险偏好,为满足负债和资本回报要求,对保险资金在大类资产上进行长期规划与分配的过程.本文介绍的寿险资金"战略资产配置三维方法论",是以偿付能力为核心风险偏好,在资本市场长期回报均值回归及Cornish-Fisher展开调整的跨周期宏观经济假设基础上,利用马科维茨模型对公司整体的资产组合进...     

Allocation of Capital in the Insurance Industry

ABSTRACT: This article discusses and critiques the methods that have been proposed for allocating capital in financial institutions, with an emphasis on applications in the insurance industry. The author discusses the rationale for allocating capital by line of business and explains how capital allocation can be used to maximize firm value. The implications for capital allocation of regulatory risk-based capital and the capital asset pricing model are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of using value-at-risk and insolvency put option criteria in capital allocation are analyzed. Finally, recently proposed methods of marginal capital allocation are evaluated. One conclusion is that using the insolvency put option is superior to value-at-risk for allocating capital but that both methods fail to account for diversification across lines in the multi-line firm. The primary conclusion is that marginal capital allocation methodologies based on option-pricing models that recognize the effects of diversification are the best approach for allocating capital in the financial industry.     

创业投资与产业投资组织结构比较研究

从组织结构来看，创业投资对传统的产业投资组织理论提出了挑战。理论研究主要集中在三个方面：委托代理理论、投融资理论与法人治理结构。从实证角度来看，传统产业投资与创业投资组织结构模式有不同的选择，这也决定了两者不同的绩效。比较国内创业投资与产业投资组织结构模式的不同选择。提出了一些建议。     

资本约束下保险公司最优大类资产配置模型研究

中国第二代偿付能力监管制度体系(以下简称“偿二代”)执行以后,投资风险直接体现在资本要求上,资本充足率成为保险公司投资决策的重要约束。在此背景下,保险公司有必要建立整体经济资本预算框架,通过提高各类资产的边际资本回报率,提升公司股东价值。本文通过理论研究证明资本约束下保险公司最优大类资产配置的路径首先是进行负债风险匹配资产的管理,其次才是追求盈余资产收益最大化,同时,本文创新性提出了三阶段的数值求解方法,填补了国内文献以及保险公司实践中难以前置化资本约束得到大类资产配置数值解的研究空白。     

中国保险业面临的风险分析

当前，防范金融风险已经成为一个世界性问题，保险公司作为分散风险、提供经济保障的企业，其风险比其他金融行业更具有隐蔽性、滞后性和扩散性，但随着风险的不断积蓄和扩大，保险公司风险一旦爆发就难以救助，将严重危害整个金融体系的安全，并有可能引发社会风险。     

Reinsurance and Capital Structure: Evidence From the United Kingdom Non‐Life Insurance Industry

Using a data set consisting of statutory returns of U.K. non‐life insurers from 1985 to 2002, I find that insurers with higher leverage tend to purchase more reinsurance, and insurers with higher reinsurance dependence tend to have a higher level of debt. My results are consistent with the expected bankruptcy costs argument, agency costs theory, risk‐bearing hypothesis, and renting capital hypothesis. I also find that the impact of leverage on reinsurance will be weaker for insurers that use more derivatives than those that use less. Moreover, high levels of derivative use increase the leverage gains attributable to reinsurance.     

我国寿险公司资产配置研究

本文研究寿险公司的最优资产配置问题。与以往研究不同,本文基于寿险公司收益率分布的实证考察,结合法律法规对寿险资产投资的限制,建立寿险公司资产配置模型。首先建立保险公司的收益模型,以及投资比例和在险价值模型。为了完成对目标函数的刻画,利用水晶球软件对风险资产收益率序列进行分布匹配测试,分析收益率序列分布假设;最后,利用MATLAB优化软件包计算中国人寿的最优资产比例,并与其实际配置进行了比较分析。     

吉林省寿险业存在的问题及对策

吉林省寿险业与国内平均水平、世界平均水平相比都存在很大差距。应采取切实可行的前瞻性对策，实施以保障改革，求发展，保稳定的新战略，采取必要措施，支持和扶持吉林省寿险业的发展。     

Analysis of Systemic Risk in the Insurance Industry

In this paper, we discuss the systemic relevance of the insurance sector. Systemic risk is defined as the propensity of a financial institution to be undercapitalised when the financial system as a whole is undercapitalised. By the law of large numbers, traditional lines of insurance with idiosyncratic non-catastrophic risks cannot be systemic. On the contrary, undiversified insurers specialised in activities whose insured risks are highly correlated with GDP are systemic. In the life insurance sector, some contractual clauses such as unhedged minimum guarantees and free options to surrender raise the chance of systemic relevance. On the contrary, life insurers satisfying the classic solvency capital requirements contribute to the liquidity of financial markets thanks to the long-termist approach of their portfolio management. Finally, using historical data in the U.S. on the contribution of different sectors to the aggregate volatility of the economy, we show that investment banking is almost twice as volatile as aggregate GDP, while insurance is one fifth as volatile as aggregate GDP. The insurance sector thus appears to be a stabilising force of the economy.     

Organizational Structure,Board Composition,and Risk Taking in the U.S. Property Casualty Insurance Industry

This study examines the impact of organizational structure and board composition on risk taking in the U.S. property casualty insurance industry, addressing different risk‐taking behaviors from different perspectives. The risk‐taking measures include total risk, underwriting risk, investment risk, and leverage risk. The evidence shows that mutual insurers have lower total risk, underwriting risk, and investment risk than stock insurers. In terms of board composition variables, we find that some board composition variables not only have impact on risk‐taking behaviors but also affect different risk measures differently. Thus, using different risk measures is better than using one risk measure to assess risk‐taking behavior. Finally, we conclude that an insurer can control its total risk through management of underwriting, investment, and leverage risks that determine an insurer's risk profile.     

基于风险最小化与资产专用性的保险投资研究

尽管国外保险公司是资本市场的主要投资者，但以“效益最大化”为目标的保险投资方式，并不能使保险的偿付能力和社会风险得到最大改善。在现代风险管理中，“风险最小化”目标是保险经营与投资的相对最优选择。在现代风险市场中，保险资金的“风险专用性”决定了保险承担着风险融资中介和风险投资主体的作用。在“风险最小化”与“资产专用性”界定和约束下的保险投资，可以实现保险效益与社会效益的共同改善。     

金融周期视角下的保险资管行业转型与发展

金融周期正对中国宏观调控和金融监管政策框架产生深刻影响.在此背景下,保险资管行业将受何种影响及如何应对是个重要问题.本文测算了中国的金融周期,分析其特征并进行了国际比较.随后从影子银行信贷脉冲视角分析金融周期的经济效应和制度效应,构建静态局部均衡模型研究金融周期对保险资管行业的影响和传导链条,并进行了实证检验,从资产端、资金来源和行业格局角度进行机制分析.研究发现,中国金融周期与欧美错位,正处在下行周期;金融周期是驱动经济和金融市场波动背后的一个中长期影响因子,金融周期作用于宏观经济,进而影响利率和信用利差,最后影响保险资管机构的资产配置行为;金融周期还作用于宏观调控和金融监管框架,最终也影响到保险资管行业的竞争格局.最后,本文对保险资管行业转型与发展提出了建议.     

Capital Share Risk in U.S. Asset Pricing

A single macroeconomic factor based on growth in the capital share of aggregate income exhibits significant explanatory power for expected returns across a range of equity characteristic portfolios and nonequity asset classes, with risk price estimates that are of the same sign and similar in magnitude. Positive exposure to capital share risk earns a positive risk premium, commensurate with recent asset pricing models in which redistributive shocks shift the share of income between the wealthy, who finance consumption primarily out of asset ownership, and workers, who finance consumption primarily out of wages and salaries.     

The Bankruptcy Cost of the Life Insurance Industry Under Regulatory Forbearance

Abstract

In this study the Taiwan Insurance Guaranty Fund (TIGF) is introduced to investigate the ex ante assessment insurance guaranty scheme. We study the bankruptcy cost when a financially troubled life insurer is taken over by TIGF. The pricing formula of the fair premium of TIGF incorporating the regulatory forbearance is derived. The embedded Parisian option due to regulatory forbearance on fair premiums is investigated. The numerical results show that leverage ratio, asset volatility, grace period, and intervention criterion influence the default costs. Asset volatility has a significant effect on the default option, while leverage ratio is shown to aggravate the negative influence from the volatility of risky asset. Furthermore, the numerical analysis concludes that the premium for the insurance guaranty fund is risk sensitive and that a risk-based premium scheme could be implemented, hence, to ease the moral hazard.