The effect of federal insurance regulation has been a perennial topic of debate. Proponents have argued that federal regulation would result in a variety of benefits, including greater product innovation, increased speed-to-market, reduction of regulatory costs, and additional cost efficiencies....

The effect of federal insurance regulation has been a perennial topic of debate. Proponents have argued that federal regulation would result in a variety of benefits including greater product innovation, increased speed-to-market, reduction of regulatory costs, and additional cost efficiencies....

Adverse selection plays a prominent role in the insurance literature due to its negative implications for insurer financial performance and stability. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence consistent with the existence of adverse selection in the U.S. insurance market. Potential...

We analyze life insurance policy surrender activity to determine whether surrender is a function of certain macroeconomic variables and, therefore, highly correlated across policies. Results support the Emergency Fund Hypothesis and the Interest Rate Hypothesis. In addition, we provide evidence...

Over the past decade, much attention has been given to the topics of corporate governance and corporate risk management. One increasingly important insurance product associated with each of these issues is directors' and officers' (D&O) liability insurance. Given the interconnectedness that...

Prior research suggests that the occurrence of a catastrophe may lead to increases in risk mitigation, risk perception, and the demand for insurance. Given the extensive damage inflicted by major natural disasters, such a phenomenon is intuitive for property risk. However, the literature...

Prior literature provides support both for the existence of target capital structures and internal capital markets (ICM). The issue of whether firms use internal capital to reduce deviations from target capital structures, however, has yet to be examined. We provide the first empirical evidence...

Our study examines two aspects of life insurers’ exposure to the troubled residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) market. First, we develop and estimate a model that explains cross-sectional variation in RMBS exposure in terms of firm characteristics. We find that firms least likely to...

On September 14, 2005, a press report announced the Mississippi Attorney General's intention to file a suit against the insurance industry forcing homeowners’ insurers to pay flood damage claims despite the standard water damage exclusion. This increase in uncertainty regarding whether...

Prior studies have considered a variety of factors that may account for the variation in wealth across U.S. households. This study adds to existing literature in this area by more closely analyzing a subset of households - those considered low savers. More specifically, we empirically determine...