The coexistence of mutual and stock organizational form in insurance has been the topic of extensive study. This article provides a review of theoretical and empirical literature from three perspectives: agency problems in each form, efficiency, and the causes of conversion between the two...

This article models a board of directors consisting of either pure directors or shareholder directors. Different from pure directors, shareholder directors own equity of the firm in addition to receiving directors’ fee. The model reaches a conclusion that if directors owe their appointments to...

This study performs a time series analysis to explore the effects of property casualty insurance underwriting cycles on stock and mutual insurers' asset risk taking. It is well documented that underwriting costs and insolvency risks faced by insurers are greater in hard markets while lower in...

Ma and Ren (2012) find that insurers cater to the market's preference when making decisions on growth. In this paper, we further examine whether the catering behavior is rewarded by higher market valuation in both short term and long term and whether the catering involves greater risk. We find...

The paper presents a model of shareholders' decision to purchase Directors' and Officers' (D&O) insurance for their directors. We consider the tradeoff between the “Governance Enhancing Effect” and the moral hazard effect of D&O insurance and focus on the role of information in determining...