浅论保险人的说明义务

笔者力图通过对现行《保险法》第17条的保险人的说明义务进行客观而理性的梳理与分析,给出一些合理化建议以求对保险公司在实际营运中能就此点将风险控制在最小化方面有所帮助。     

德国法上保险人的咨询义务——兼论我国保险人说明义务的完善

投保人对自己的投保需求及所选择的保险产品充分了解,是获得保险保护的前提条件。2008年德国保险法改革引入的保险人咨询义务,旨在弥补投保人在选择保险产品以及保护范围时信息之不足,为订立适于满足其需要的保险合同创造基础,是对保险人就格式条款说明义务的有益补充。保险人违反咨询义务将产生损害赔偿责任,尤其是缔约过失责任。在我国现行法框架下对于投保人因欠缺咨询而产生的保护漏洞亦可借助缔约过失责任予以救济,但立法上仍应引入咨询义务作为保险人说明义务的补充,构建完善的保险人信息提供机制,强化保险消费者保护。     

保险人说明义务之解构与体系化回归

作为我国《保险法》上“创新之举”的保险人说明义务因对保险人的过度要求而屡受诟病,其理论基础最大诚信原则及当事人合意理论并不足以为制度合理性背书,实践中说明义务的形式化使《保险法》第17条成为否认保险合同格式条款效力的“杀手锏”。为理清保险人说明义务的功能并明确其定位,采用体系化分析方法,从关系契约角度提供了一个崭新的分析视角,依普通买卖合同——消费者合同——保险合同——金融合同的路径,缔约一方信息提供义务呈增强趋势。保险人说明义务应回归格式条款纳入合同规则之本源,作为程序性规则通过程序正义保障实质正义,其原本负担的实质判断功能应建立在内容控制规则的完善上。     

保险人说明义务正当性之探讨

保险人的说明义务是指在合同订立过程中保险人就有关保险合同条款内容向投保人进行提示与说明的义务。保险人的说明义务是一种法定义务。我国《保险法》第17条规定：“订立保险合同时,保险人应当向投保人说明保险合同的条款内容。”该义务的目的在于保证投保人能够就交易的内容作充分的了解。     

刍议保险人说明义务对免责条款效力的影响

我国《保险法》自1995年颁布以来,都有对保险人不履行提示及明确说明义务则免责条款不产生效力的法律规定,然而经过2002年和2009年的两次修订,却一直没有对＂免除保险人责任的条款＂的范围加以明确,从而引起对此法律条款的歧义乃至误判。因此,本文将以保险合同免责条款的歧义与辨析为基础,探讨保险人说明义务对。     

论保险合同免责条款和保险人明确说明义务——《保险法》第17条和第19条的理解和适用

2009年修订后的《中华人民共和国保险法》（以下简称“新保险法”）根据保险市场信息的高度不对称性,即保险人处于相对强势地位的特点,强化了对投保人、被保险人、受益人利益的保护,其中一个重要表现就是规范格式条款。新保险法在免责条款的明确说明义务、无效免责条款的规定上做出了进一步修改和完善。本文从免责条款的性质及法律效果等角...     

保险人“明确说明”义务履行标准之重构

保险交易产品因专业化使保险合同双方当事人交易信息不对称问题日益凸显,而这势必会从根本上影响到保险领域交易公平的实现。因此,在保险人占据信息优势地位的时代背景下,全面、善意、积极、主动地进行信息披露,向投保人就合同中的免责条款作出陈述、     

金融机构的说明义务研究

金融机构的跨行业竞争、内外资机构间的竞争随着金融改革和资本开放越演越烈,金融产品也更加多样化、复杂化和专业化,而在运营过程中,金融机构不履行或不完全履行说明义务的行为也频频发生,进而引致金融消费领域的诸多侵权、违约现象,金融消费者权益保护堪忧.因而,在保护金融消费者权益成为“一行三会”金融改革的重点内容时,有必要深入研究金融机构的说明义务,完善相应的法律规则体系,规范说明义务的具体内容,即明确说明义务的履行方式、违反说明义务的认定标准以及相应的责任等,以促进金融领域的公平正当交易.     

The Effectiveness of Regulation Fair Disclosure: Evidence from an Emerging Market

The effect of corporate disclosure in emerging markets is not clearly predictable because of the prevalent information leakage prior to disclosure. We empirically examine the effectiveness of Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) in reducing information asymmetry among equity traders in an emerging market. Specifically, we test whether fair disclosure activity is negatively related to the probability of informed trading (PIN). Multivariate tests on a sample of listed companies in Korea subject to Reg FD reveal the following: (1) more frequent disclosure under Reg FD is related to lower information asymmetry, and (2) this relation differs across the types of disclosure, with the effect of qualitative disclosures on the PIN being weaker than that of quantitative disclosures. Evidence also indicates that the negative association between fair disclosure activities and information asymmetry is more (less) pronounced for firms with poorer (better) information environments where selective information leakage is more (less) likely. The results are robust to sensitivity tests. Our findings have implications for disclosure regulations in emerging markets, given that the existing literature casts doubt on the effectiveness of corporate disclosure in such markets.     

Underwriting Syndicates and the Cost of Debt: Evidence from Chinese Corporate Bonds

This article examines the association between underwriting syndicates and the cost of debt based on a sample of Chinese corporate bonds during 2007–2013. We find strong evidence that there is a negative relationship between forming underwriting syndicates and the cost of debt. The cost of bonds is more likely to decrease when the syndicate has more members—specifically, more joint managers. Additionally, by measuring the information asymmetry using several methods, we observe that this negative relationship is more pronounced when the information asymmetry between issuers and bond investors is more serious. The above results are robust after controlling for the potential endogeneity by constructing instrumental variables based on the unique setting of China’s corporate bond market.     

Accruals Quality, Information Risk and Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australia

Abstract:  Recent theoretical work argues that information risk is a non-diversifiable risk factor that is priced in the capital market. Using accruals quality to proxy for information risk, Francis et al. (2005) provide empirical support for this argument using a sample of US firms. This paper re-examines the interplay of accruals quality, information risk and cost of capital in Australia, where a number of important institutional and regulatory differences are hypothesized to affect the relation between accruals quality and cost of capital. The results suggest that, while accruals quality impacts on the cost of capital for Australian firms, some salient differences exist. In contrast to findings for US firms, the costs of debt and equity for Australian firms are largely influenced by accruals quality arising from economic fundamentals (i.e., innate accrual quality) but not discretionary reporting choices (i.e., discretionary accrual quality). This finding is consistent with our predictions based on the Australian institutional and regulatory environment. In addition, using both the asset pricing tests in Francis et al. (2005) and Core et al. (2008) , we provide evidence consistent with accruals quality being a priced risk factor.     

Financial reporting and information asymmetry: an empirical analysis of the SEC's information-supplying exemption for foreign companies

This paper examines empirically the effects of domicile and SEC registration and reporting requirements on information asymmetry. We compare the adverse-selection component of the relative bid–ask spread (our measure of information asymmetry) for three samples of Nasdaq NMS companies that trade in different home markets and are subject to different standards of disclosure: registered U.S. companies, registered non-Canadian foreign companies, and unregistered non-Canadian foreign companies covered by the information-supplying exemption of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. We find that the adverse-selection component is not significantly larger for the two foreign samples, and it is not reliably different for the registered and unregistered foreign samples. Therefore, we are unable to document that less stringent SEC registration and reporting requirements for foreign companies are associated with greater information asymmetry among investors for non-U.S. securities traded on Nasdaq.     

Signals from the government: Policy disagreement and the transmission of fiscal shocks

We investigate the effects of fiscal policy communication on the propagation of government spending shocks. To this aim, we propose a new index measuring the coordination effects of policy communication on private agents׳ expectations. This index is based on the disagreement amongst US professional forecasters about future government spending. The underlying intuition is that a clear fiscal policy communication can coalesce expectations, reducing disagreement. Results indicate that, in times of low disagreement, the output response to fiscal spending innovations is positive and large, mainly due to private investment response. Conversely, periods of elevated disagreement are characterised by muted output response.     

Foreign competition for shares and the pricing of information asymmetry: Evidence from equity market liberalization

Using the equity market liberalization of 23 emerging market countries between 1996 and 2006, we examine how the degree of competition for a firm's shares affects the price of information asymmetry. We find evidence of a significant decline in the pricing of information asymmetry as countries remove regulatory restrictions on foreign ownership. Our study provides novel evidence on the link between the degree of competitiveness of equity markets and the price of information asymmetry. The work also furthers our understanding of the economic consequences of foreign stock ownership.     

Risk Awareness of Interpersonal Trust and Entrepreneurship in China: Evidence from Survey Data

This paper aims to build a theoretical framework for the influence of risk awareness of interpersonal trust (RAIT) on entrepreneurship, and explores the influence of RAIT on entrepreneurship with the micro survey data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010–2013. The study found that, individuals with higher level of RAIT, their probability of starting new business will increase significantly, and with every increase of RAIT level, the probability of business venturing increase almost 4.0%. No mediation effects of information screening and cooperative mechanism are found in the relationship between RAIT and entrepreneurship. Moreover, during the venturing process, risks accompanying interpersonal trust cannot be reduced by social input; the reduction occurs only in eastern China where the economic system and the industrial development standards are more comprehensive and mature. This paper contributes to the literatures in the following two areas: it provides new evidence on how to deal with risks in the entrepreneurship process that accompanying interpersonal trust; meanwhile, it provides an explanatory mechanism on how the risk awareness affects business venturing.     

Role of Algorithmic and Co-Location Trading on the Speed of Information Adjustments: Evidence from India

We investigate whether increased Algorithmic Trading (AT) intensity caused by the introduction of Co-location trading (CLT) facilities improve the productive efficiency of the Indian stock indices. We measure the change in the speed of information adjustment and change of persistence before and after the introduction of CLT for Indian Indices. We report an improvement in the overall productive efficiency of the leading Indian Indices, Midcap and Smallcap indices being the prominent beneficiaries. Our work contributes to the empirical literature on the ongoing debate on the benefits of AT and its role in improving market efficiency, especially in the emerging markets context.     

Product life cycle cost analysis: the impact of customer profiling, competitive advantage, and quality of IS information

Life cycle cost analysis is considered in the literature to be of increasing importance to firms as international competition intensifies and technological change continues. The literature increasingly emphasizes that rapid technological change and shortened life cycles have made product life cycle cost analysis critical to organizations. Although significant benefits are attributed to life cycle cost analysis, there is little evidence regarding the extent of its application in organizational settings. Moreover, there is scant systematic evidence available with respect to the array of factors that may influence its use. However, a review of the literature suggests that customer profiling, competitive advantage, and quality of information system information are three factors potentially impacting the extent to which life cycle cost analysis is used in firms. The results of the study illustrate first, the degree to which product life cycle cost analysis is used across a random sample of organizations. Second, that all three independent variables play a positive role in affecting the extent to which product life cycle costing is used in firms.     

The Effects of Environmental Information Disclosure and Energy Types on the Cost of Equity: Evidence from the Energy Industry in China

This study investigates whether environment information disclosure (EID) and different energy sources have any effect on the cost of equity capital (COEC), and how the EID effect on the COEC varies with different types of energy. We find a negative relationship between EID and COEC. Thus, EID reduces the agency problem and information asymmetry between firms and investors, and also supports the legitimacy and stakeholder theories’ explanation of the effect of EID on the COEC in China. We find a positive (negative) relationship between some energy sources such as gas, fossil-fuelled thermal power generation, and oil (hydro-power generation, solar, and wind) and the COEC. The finding explains the polluting nature, risk of replacement, regulation risk, and regulatory costs of different energy types, and those risks have been accounted by investors. We also find that when gas, fossil-fuelled thermal power, and oil firms increase their level of EID, their COEC increases, whereas when power grid, solar, and wind power firms increase their level of EID, their COEC decreases. This finding is supported by the combination of polluting nature, risk of replacement, regulation risk, and regulatory costs of different energy sources and legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Our findings are robust to several endogeneity checks and additional tests for several unique features of Chinese capital markets.