Die Marktabgrenzung im Versicherungskartellrecht am Beispiel der Berufshaftpflichtversicherungen

The definition of the relevant market is crucial to the application of European and German competition law and especially difficult when dealing with insurance markets. Generally, the product and geographic market comprises all products or services that are regarded as substitutable by consumers. In addition, the supply-side substitutability can be taken into consideration. In defining insurance product markets, the supply-side substitutability is decisive, because insurance products are seldom interchangeable from a policy holder’s point of view. Applying the concept of supply-side substitutability to professional indemnity insurances leads to product markets correlating with the different professional groups: Indemnity insurances for physicians constitute a product market; insurances for lawyers, notary publics, tax advisers and public accountants form another market and insurances for architects and construction engineers another one. These product markets are still national markets. Professional indemnity insurances are extensively shaped by the differing legal systems, namely by national insurance contract law, by liability provisions and by a legal obligation to insure. Consequently, policy holders cannot substitute their indemnity insurance with foreign insurance products and insurers are confronted with market entry barriers. However, the proposed directive on services on the internal market and the adopted directive on insurance mediation could result in community-wide markets in the near future.     

Interest Rate Asymmetries in Long-Term Loan and Deposit Markets

Studies of U.S. loan and deposit markets have found that consumer interest rates respond asymmetrically to changes in market rates. If this finding is repeated across many different consumer finance product markets, then it could have important implications for the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. This paper tests for significant interest rate asymmetries in consumer finance markets that differ markedly from those examined in the existing literature. The main result of this paper is to reject the hypothesis of significant asymmetries in most (but not all) of the longer-term loan and deposit markets examined in Canada and the United States. This indicates that the explanations for asymmetries given in the literature are not generalizable across different product markets in different countries.     

When Do International Operations Lead to Improved Performance? An Analysis of Property‐Liability Insurers

In recent decades, insurers have been increasing their exposure to international markets. This article seeks to investigate the relationship between property-liability insurers' international operations and their risk-adjusted returns using cross-section and time-series data for the years 1992 through 2000. Our findings indicate that the relationship between international operations and performance is contingent upon the degree of product diversification. Insurance companies with focused operations in terms of product lines achieve higher risk-adjusted performance as they increase their exposures to international markets. However, insurers who are highly diversified across product lines face declining returns with greater exposure to international markets.     

The Value of Crowdfunding: An Explanation Based on Demand Uncertainty and Comparison with Venture Capital

This article notes that an advantage of crowdfunding is in its ability to help start-up firms acquire more accurate market demand information regarding new products when compared with venture capital (VC). The whole market of a given product can be conceptualized as being segmented into several, small local markets. VC has a comprehensive knowledge of local markets in general but is prone to noisy aggregate demand information as a result. While crowdfunding investors have intimate knowledge regarding local demand information in their respective locales, they lack knowledge in other local markets. We show that under certain conditions, crowdfunding can provide more accurate demand information and therefore can generate better incentives to entrepreneurs while improving product quality and helping entrepreneurs make correct decisions on whether or not to launch a new product. Therefore, the wisdom of the crowd can be more valuable than the wisdom of the expert.     

Product Market Competition, Insider Trading, and Stock Market Efficiency

How does competition in firms' product markets influence their behavior in equity markets? Do product market imperfections spread to equity markets? We examine these questions in a noisy rational expectations model in which firms operate under monopolistic competition while their shares trade in perfectly competitive markets. Firms use their monopoly power to pass on shocks to customers, thereby insulating their profits. This encourages stock trading, expedites the capitalization of private information into stock prices and improves the allocation of capital. Several implications are derived and tested.     

Search,product market competition and CEO pay

We develop a market equilibrium model to show how search frictions in the CEO market, agency conflicts and product market characteristics interact to affect CEO market tightness, firm size and CEO incentive pay. The theory generates novel implications that link firms' product markets with CEO markets. Different determinants of competition—the entry cost, product substitutability, and market size—have contrasting effects on CEO market tightness, CEO pay and firm size. We also derive new predictions for the impact of product market risk on firm size and CEO incentive compensation. We show empirical support for several cross-sectional hypotheses derived from the theory for how CEO pay, CEO incentives, firm size and market tightness vary with product market characteristics.     

Factor-product markets and firm's capital structure: A literature review

We present an overview of the literature that links capital structure and factor-product markets. These studies relate some elements of the modern financial theory to the stakeholder theory, industrial organization, and firms' strategic management. Three main points are highlighted. First, the relevant role of non-financial stakeholders in capital structure design. Second, the interactions between capital structure and market structure. Third, the two-direction effect between the firm's capital structure and its strategic behavior in product markets. Our study aims to build an index for the existing works to guide researchers for new ideas and possible advances.     

Product Ratings as a Market Reaction to Deregulation: Evidence From the German Insurance Market

This study provides the first investigation of information markets as a reaction to deregulation of product forms in insurance markets. The article studies the case of Germany, where insurance product ratings entered the market after relaxation of product regulation in 1994. The ratings’ potential for enhancing the performance of a deregulated insurance market is analyzed by considering both market structure and governance characteristics of the rating market, since the theoretical literature predicts that both are important determinants of rating outcomes. Data from a unique panel data set containing disability insurance ratings from the three major rating agencies are also examined in light of theoretical predictions. Results suggest that market governance and competition characteristics are favorable for the production of unbiased and informative ratings. Ratings for disability insurance support this interpretation, since the characteristics of the ratings conform to theoretical predictions about ratings in well‐functioning rating markets.     

Determinants of International Insurers' Participation in Foreign Non-Life Markets

Mirroring the trend in the broader marketplace, the global insurance industry is steadily moving toward increased liberalization and deregulation. This study seeks to develop the first empirical model that examines the importance of foreign market characteristics as they relate to the participation of international insurers in the non‐life business of those countries. The analysis reveals that market structure is an important factor in determining whether international insurers participate in a given foreign market. In addition, for markets that are not competitive, removing trade barriers would significantly improve the desirability of those countries as host markets. The results also suggest that countries with higher gross domestic product tend to attract more involvement from international insurers. While this research focuses on the markets of industrialized countries, the findings will provide significant implications for those emerging markets that have not yet collected relevant data on a number of the variables included in this study.     

Success Factors of Financial Derivatives Markets in Asia

The objective of this study is to investigate the success factors of financial derivatives markets in Asia. The selected countries include Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. The success factors of financial derivatives markets in Asia are examined by employing the panel regression. The empirical results show that size, volatility, and liquidity of spot market are significant factors for the success of financial derivatives markets in sample countries. Further, tick size, contract size, and option-type also enhance trading volumes while product age is not statistically significant. The results from this study provide important implications in developing the financial derivatives market which plays an important role in the capital market.     

New development: Exploring public service markets

The authors explain why public service markets are fundamentally different from regulated utilities markets by looking at the product characteristics, market structure, funding oversight and legal arrangements in such markets. They highlight the issues which will be important as marketized delivery becomes increasingly mainstream in public services provision.     

CEO inside debt,market structure and payout policy

Agency based studies provide conflicting predictions about the relation between CEO inside debt and corporate payout policy. This study argues that market structure provides an empirical setting to test when and how inside debt influences corporate payout policy. Using a large sample of US corporations for the period 2006–2016, it finds that CEO inside debt is positively related to the propensity and level of dividends and total payouts (dividends plus repurchases). The positive association between inside debt and payout variables is however significantly influenced by competition in product markets. Specifically, results indicate that inside debt exerts a positive impact on payout policy only in low competition markets and does not seem to have any significant effect on payout policy in high competition markets.     

The consumption-real exchange rate anomaly with extensive margins

This paper investigates a consumption-real exchange rate anomaly from the open macroeconomics literature known as the Backus-Smith puzzle. We both analytically and quantitatively examine how an expansion of trade along extensive margins can contribute to the puzzle's resolution. Our argument is based on 1) a wealth effect due to changes in the number of product varieties, 2) statistical inefficiency in measuring the number of product varieties, and 3) market incompleteness. Contrary to complete asset markets which, in general, feature overly strong risk sharing properties, changes in the number of product varieties under incomplete markets may produce a wealth effect under high trade elasticity. Since statistical agencies systematically fail to capture the welfare impact arising from that changes, data-consistent terms of trade and real exchange rates tend to appreciate due to this positive wealth effect. This provides a realistic correlation between data-consistent real exchange rates and consumption.     

Durable‐goods oligopoly with secondary markets: the case of automobiles

We study the effects of durability and secondary markets on equilibrium firm behavior in the car market. We construct a dynamic oligopoly model of a differentiated product market to incorporate the equilibrium production dynamics that arise from the durability of the goods and their active trade in secondary markets. We derive an econometric model and estimate its parameters using data from the automobile industry over a 20‐year period. Our estimates are used to provide a measure of the competitive importance of the secondary market.     

Employee Layoffs, Shareholder Wealth and Firm Performance: Evidence from the UK

Abstract:  We examine the financial performance of UK listed companies surrounding the announcement of permanent employee layoffs. We find that poor operating and stock price performance, increased gearing, and threats from external markets for corporate control precede employee layoffs. Layoff announcements elicit a significantly negative stock price reaction, which is driven by announcements that are reactive to poor financial conditions. We also find that layoffs result in significant increases in employee productivity and corporate focus. We conclude that layoffs represent an efficient response to poor financial conditions, but that their occurrence is strongly dependent on pressure from external control markets.     

产品市场竞争、董事会结构与公司绩效——基于中国上市公司的实证分析

本文采用沪、深两市10大行业共计525个样本公司数据,对处于不同竞争度的产品市场的上市公司,就其董事会规模、独立董事比例、总经理与董事长是否两职合一与公司绩效间关系进行实证检验。结果表明:在不同竞争度的产品市场中,董事会发挥的治理功能也不相同。在产品市场竞争度低的行业中,由于外部市场监管不便或不利,客观上需要董事会发挥其应有的监管作用;而在产品市场竞争度高的行业中,市场能够起到较好的监督作用,董事会仅起到一定的辅助监管作用。从我国的实际情况来看,产品市场竞争度有待进一步提高,强化董事会的监管作用有利于完善公司治理,提高公司绩效。     

The profit effects of product-market growth strategy: A financial services example

The paper presents an empirical examination of the relationship of an organisation's growth strategy to performance. The study includes a sample of chief executive officers in the financial services sector, specifically credit unions. In particular, the relationship of product-market growth strategy to profitability is investigated while also controlling for firm size and the perceived environment. The authors find that product growth strategy has no impact on profits but that market growth strategy does significantly affect profitability. In particular, those firms that emphasise new markets in their growth strategies are the highest performers and are significantly more profitable than credit unions that emphasise growth through either emphasis of products, current markets, or both current and new markets.     

Corporate Disclosure as a Tacit Coordination Mechanism: Evidence from Cartel Enforcement Regulations

We empirically study how collusion in product markets affects firms' financial disclosure strategies. We find that after a rise in cartel enforcement, U.S. firms start sharing more detailed information in their financial disclosure about their customers, contracts, and products. This new information potentially benefits peers by helping to tacitly coordinate actions in product markets. Indeed, changes in disclosure are associated with higher future profitability. Our results highlight the potential conflict between securities and antitrust regulations.     

Product market competition,competitive strategy,and analyst coverage

This paper examines how product market competition and strategic interactions among peer firms influence analyst coverage. First, we hypothesize that product market competition increases both the demand and supply of analyst coverage. Using three variations of industry concentration ratios and a firm specific measure of competition, we test and find a positive and significant effect of market competition on analyst coverage. Second, we explore an information transfer channel through which product market affects analyst coverage. We hypothesize that information flows more freely among firms selling similar products. Such information flows lowers analyst information collection and processing costs, which in turn increases analyst coverage. Using product similarity index developed by Hoberg and Phillips (J Polit Econ 124(5):1423–1465, 2016) to capture the effect of information transfer, we find that analyst coverage increases with product similarity. Third we examine the role of competitive strategy in analyst coverage. We split our sample into markets of strategic complements and strategic substitutes. We find that the effect of market competition and analyst coverage is more pronounced in markets where firms compete as strategic complements.     

The effect of asymmetric information on product market outcomes

We explore how asymmetric information in financial markets affects outcomes in product markets. Difference-in-difference tests around brokerage house merger/closure events (which increase asymmetric information through reductions in analyst coverage) indicate worse industry-adjusted sales growth for shocked firms than for their peers. Our results are consistent with Bolton and Scharfstein's (1990) tradeoff between investor agency concerns and predation risk. Further support is found in stronger treatment effects among firms with ex ante greater agency concerns, financing constraints, asymmetric information, and those operating in ex ante more competitive (fluid) product market spaces. Our results are concentrated in industries where we can clearly identify either net firm entry or exit.