Intangible assets, known as franchise value in the insurance industry, are critical for insurance companies to acquire new business and survive the fierce market competition. In this study, we analyze how the incentives to protect intangible assets and to go for broke jointly affect their asset...

Intangible assets facilitate insurers' capacity to retain existing business and attract new clients. In this study we analyze how the incentives to protect intangible assets affect asset risk taking behavior of property liability insurers. Our evidence supports the view that insurers' incentives...

This paper examines equity response to the occurrence of large non operating losses. As with previous studies, significant negative abnormal returns are detected around the occurrence of large losses. The paper extends the literature by examining issues not previously investigated. For a subset...

Variable annuities have become increasingly important in retirement plans. This paper provides an examination of the investment performance of variable annuities for the period year-end 1973 to year-end 1988. Returns, risk, and selectivity measures are analyzed for the sample of annuities, for...

This paper investigates the integrity of financial analysts by examining their recommendation responses to large quarterly earnings surprises. Although there is no significant difference in recommendation changes between affiliated and unaffiliated analysts in response to positive earnings...

Assuming some fixed cost to information acquisition, diffuse shareholders in publicly held firms have little incentive to produce information that can substitute for the services of financial analysts. However, we argue that concentrated shareholdings, either by outsiders like institutions or by...

Assuming some fixed cost to information acquisition, diffuse shareholders in publicly held firms have little incentive to produce information that can substitute for the services of financial analysts. However, we argue that concentrated shareholdings, either by outsiders like institutions or by...

This study examines whether dividend payout, an internal corporate governance mechanism, is a substitute or an outcome of product market competition, an external corporate governance mechanism. The sample includes firms in six of the world's most prominent economies. We find that firms in more...

This study examines the role that CEO overconfidence plays in an explanation of international mergers and acquisitions during the period 2000-2006. Using a sample of CEOs of Fortune Global 500 firms over our sample period, we find that CEO overconfidence is related to a number of critical...