In spite of the fact that they can draw on a larger, more liquid and more diversifiedpool of capital than the equity of reinsurance companies, financial markets have failed to displace reinsurance as the primary risk-sharing vehicle for natural catastrophe risk. We show that this failure can be...

Over the period 2002 to 2003, Switzerland and the European Union (EU) were engaged in negotiations regarding banking secrecy. The EU's stated goal was for Switzerland to abolish banking secrecy. Switzerland refused and offered to impose a withholding tax on interest income instead. The two...

We characterize the conditions under which firms choose to (i) merge, (ii) form an alliance, or (iii) trade assets. For that prupose, we distinguish between the firms' assets (what can be traded in isolation), thei knowhow (what can be learned but not traded), and their core competencies (what...