Productivity Growth in the European Insurance Industry: Evidence from Life and Non-Life Companies

This paper estimates and decomposes productivity growth for a sample of European insurance companies using Standard and Poor’s Eurothesys panel data set of company accounts. We focus on a period (1995–2008) where substantial deregulation took place, as well as significant shocks to global capital markets and unforeseen climatic and terrorism-related events. We estimate parametric stochastic production frontiers for life and non-life insurance from which we decompose productivity growth using a derivative-based approach. In order to capture the inherent variability of productivity in the insurance sector, we explore the consequences of adopting three different proxy measures for insurance output. In each case, we observe temporal variations in overall productivity growth for both life and non-life insurance, corresponding to systematic shocks to the market. The decomposition of these fluctuations provides important lessons for the measurement of long-term productivity growth in insurance markets and more generally in sectors which are exposed to stochastic and market-wide systematic shocks to performance. Our findings cast doubt on many previous studies of productivity growth in the financial service sector where outputs are inevitably difficult to measure due to their contingent nature. The choice of output proxies appears to be critical, particularly when exploring long-term productivity trends.     

牲畜保险、需求与参与率研究——基于浙江省生猪养殖户微观数据的实证研究

牲畜保险是农业保险的重要组成部分,生猪保险作为大宗农产品的风险保障近年来受到政府高度重视。农业保险参与率问题是农业保险的基本问题,生猪保险参与率的研究相对较少。本文利用一手资料对生猪保险的需求进行研究,使用Logistic模型,采用农户疫苗花费等代理变量对生猪保险参与率问题进行了实证研究,并对农户退保行为进行分析。研究发现:影响农户生猪保险参与率的因素主要有农户的风险规避程度、对生猪保险认知程度、养猪规模等变量。降低生猪保险理赔环节和交易成本,提高农户对农业保险的认识可以在一定程度上提高生猪保险参与率。     

我国存款保险制度“显性化”研究

存款保险制度具有稳定金融体系、保护存款人利益、降低金融风险等功能。通过对隐性存款保险制度与显性存款保险制度的比较,和对我国建立存款保险制度的障碍的分析显示,建立显性的存款保险制度是我国金融体制改革的必然要求。     

保险投资风险理论研究

在当今许多发达国家,投资已成为保险业正常运行的支点,是保险业必不可少的利润增长点.国外学者们在该领域进行了很多相关研究,而相对而言,国内对保险投资风险的研究则非常匮乏.鉴于保险投资在理论上和实践上的重要性,本文将对国外关于保险投资风险的文献进行系统性的整理与评介,以期推动我国保险业投资风险问题的研究.     

Wages,Health Insurance Benefits,and Worker Sorting Under Asymmetric Information

Abstract

Employer-sponsored health insurance is the single largest source of health insurance in the USA. In this paper, we explore a model that treats a firm as a de facto insurance company. More specifically, we model a firm as both a producer of goods for an output market and a health insurance company for their employees. The model accounts for the joint provision of wages and health insurance, including the possibility of asymmetric information in employee health status. With this structure, a firm can choose to pay their workers in some combination of cash wages and health insurance. We characterize optimal employment contracts and show that the Rothschild–Stiglitz model results under asymmetric information extend to employer provided insurance. We also find that employment-based insurance offers pooling options that are typically not available when insurance is sold as a standalone product, suggesting a stability to employer-based insurance that is not dependent on the tax system.     

引入外资对中国保险产业组织影响的实证分析 --以上海为案例

本文从实证角度分析了引入外资对上海保险产业组织的影响.外资进入后,通过引起市场主体、市场份额的变化,使上海保险市场结构更趋合理.外资在对市场竞争行为的影响上,虽然可能使竞争无序,但总的效应是积极的.通过对中外资保险公司经营绩效的对比,本文认为,外资进入有利于上海保险市场绩效的提高.     

Risk management and reinsurance strategies in the Spanish insurance market (1880–1940)

Reinsurance allows insurance companies to diversify their risks. However, from this original role, insurance companies have developed various reinsurance strategies in order to expand their market share. From the last decades of the nineteenth century to the 1940s, Spanish insurance companies used reinsurance in a largely unregulated context. This article analyses the reinsurance practices and their adaptation to the singularities of the Spanish market, namely: the difficulties for the consolidation of a core of pure reinsurers; the management of reinsurance in the internationalisation process; and the use of reinsurance by mutual societies to overcome their lack of equity capital.     

Do Lenders Cross-Subsidise Loans by Selling Payment Protection Insurance?

This study examines the recent UK regulatory decision to ban the joint provision of consumer lending and payment protection or credit insurance (hereafter PPI). This case has wide regulatory implications following concerns that the sale of PPI has been detrimental to customers due to overpriced PPI and a cross-subsidy flowing from PPI to unsecured lending. The study examines whether interest rate setting of unsecured lending is influenced by banks issuing PPI or otherwise to help establish whether such cross-subsidies have been made. This assessment is undertaken over time for a diverse and comprehensive selection of banks offering unsecured lending with and without PPI between 1998 and 2011 for three levels of borrowing. It is reported that offering PPI is a significant explanatory variable of unsecured lending interest rate levels. When unsecured lending is offered with PPI, interest rates are lower, a finding consistent with a cross-subsidy flowing from PPI remiums to unsecured lending.     

对保险资金入市的若干思考

目前关于保险资金投资股市讨论存在五个误区.保险资金直接入市基于三个理由.要制定正确的保险资金入市政策,就应该对我国股票市场的系统风险作出客观的估计和评价.在较长的时间内,我国股票市场的系统风险仍然比较大,难以对提高保险基金投资绩效发挥太大的作用.     

试论保险诈骗罪以及问题对策——结合我国的司法现状

随着我国保险事业的迅速发展,保险欺诈事件时有发生,一些不法分子利用保险制度上的一些漏洞进行保险诈骗活动.同时保险诈骗罪在实务中存在许多争议的地方需要我们探讨.     

浅析保险公司资金运用

保险资金运用是我国现代保险业得以生存和发展的重要支柱。如何加强保险资金运用已成为一个重要课题。本文分析了保险资金运用的方式、原则,并提出了完善保险资金运用的建议。     

国外农业保险发展的经验与启示

业保险在经过200多年的探索发展后,各国都已形成了一套较为完整、独特的经营体制与经营模式,考察其发展演进的经验与教训,对中国农业保险的顺利实施具有重要的现实意义。基于此,文章将以若干发达国家农业保险的实践与经验作为起点,在对中国农业保险发展特点作出比较和基本评价的基础上,提炼出对国外农业保险发展的一般规律,并据此揭示对中国农业保险发展的启示。     

Consumer empowerment: public policy and insurance regulation

This paper explores consumer advocacy as it applies to insurance regulation based on the literature and on the author's experience as a consumer representative and member of the Board of Trustees for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The NAIC, founded in 1871, is a non‐profit voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. One of its key objectives is to facilitate the fair and equitable treatment of consumers. Each year 13–16 consumer representatives are selected to speak for consumers at national meetings in addition to serving as year‐round resources to consumers, attorneys representing consumers, regulators, and other groups. Readers of the paper are encouraged to participate more fully in the public policy process. Although the focus of this paper is on insurance and regulation in the USA, the guiding principles apply to other nations, organizations, and consumer causes.     

险资入市促进了公司创新吗

随着国家政策的放开,保险公司持股上市企业的现象剧增,保险机构投资者逐渐成为中国资本市场中的重要角色,对企业经营决策发挥了重大作用。在此背景下,本文考察了险资入市对企业创新活动的影响。研究发现:一方面,保险机构投资者持股公司的研发投入和专利产出更少;另一方面,保险机构投资者持股公司的CEO强制变更概率更高,经营业绩更差。本文还讨论了保险公司影响企业创新背后的理论机理。本文研究表明,险资持股带来了过度监督效应,抑制了企业创新。本文有助于市场加深对保险机构的认识,丰富企业创新的相关研究,为改善公司治理提供建议。保险机构投资者是中国资本市场改革的重要力量,政府监管部门需合理引导保险机构投资者,使其发挥积极的外部治理作用。     

论入世对中国社会保险立法的影响——兼论我国社保法之进一步完善

社保法出台前我国社会保险立法存在着层次低,碎片化;内容旧,不适时;重城镇,轻农村的特点。入世对我国社保法出台的影响主要体现在3方面:国际贸易形势变化推动立法;其他相关领域法律制度的变化影响社会保险立法;WTO规则影响我国社会保险行政管理体制方面立法。以养老保险为例,入世对我国社保法具体险种的影响主要体现在:促使国家立法扩大了养老保险范围;有利于推动建立多层次的养老保险体系;一定程度上推动了养老保险关系跨区域转移。社保法出台后,仍有需完善之处:法制化有待进一步深入;公平性有待进一步提高;民族性有待进一步发掘和确立。     

In the service of the society: The labour management practices of an Australian life Insurer to 1940

This article considers the labour management practices in use in the Australian life insurance industry during the inter-war period. Using the Australian Mutual Provident as a case study, it is argued that the specific human resource management practices evolved to deal with separate sets of problems arising from the functions of the life insurance business and the manner in which the principal/agent problem was manifested. The differing nature of work associated with the sales and management of life insurance fostered the development of primary and secondary labour markets in which the benefits flowing to one were superior to those accruing to the other.     

公私伙伴合作应对巨灾挑战:国际经验与启示

公私伙伴合作模式是指政府和保险公司在风险意识、风险防范和风险转移三方面分工协作,共同承担责任的巨灾风险管理模式。二者的结合能够充分发挥公共和私人部门各自的比较优势,取长补短,共同建立和完善巨灾保险制度。本文在分析商业化运作模式和政府主导模式弊端的基础上,说明了公私伙伴合作模式的优势;阐明了公私伙伴合作模式的内容和类型;指出了该模式对我国巨灾风险管理的启示。     

中国保险业顺周期性的实证分析

本文在现有关于保险公司保险周期研究的基础上,对保险公司经营中的顺周期性进行实证研究。通过选取中国17家保险公司2003-2009年年度数据作为分析样本,利用面板数据模型进行实证分析,发现保险公司的顺周期效应显著;此外,还发现寿险公司的承保业务强于财险公司而投资业务弱于财险公司。本文建议对保险公司采取逆周期监管,提高保险公司经营的平稳性,促进金融体系稳健经营。     

Energy,Insurance, and Health: Viewpoints of a Microeconomist

Abstract

This contribution reviews developments in the microeconomic analysis applied to three fields that are rarely considered in combination – energy, insurance, and health – focusing on four themes. First, it finds that stocks are crucial not only in energy but also motivate (in the guise of assets) demand for insurance coverage, as well as healthcare services designed to maintain one’s stock of health. Second, however, the three fields strongly diverge in terms of their industry structure. While oil and, until recently, electricity are vertically integrated, healthcare has been the leading example of a cottage industry, with private insurance in between. Third, the structure of innovation also differs. In energy and private insurance, process and organizational innovation prevail; in healthcare, it is product innovation, meaning new characteristics at higher cost, facilitated by health insurance. Finally, government regulation impinges on all three industries.     

论中国保险公司的规模经济

保险公司只有达到一定规模才具有国际竞争力.保险公司的最佳经济规模在不同的时期受保险市场主体的多少、国家的保险产业政策等多种因素影响.我国保险公司与全球著名大型保险公司规模相比有较大差距,因此,规模经济对于提高中资保险公司的国际竞争力具有特殊的现实意义.中资保险公司可通过上市扩充资本金、并购、组建保险集团等途径实现规模经济.