Directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance is a commonly used risk management tool for corporations both in the United States and abroad. While prior research has focused on the demand for D&O insurance and its role in corporate governance, there is an absence of literature on the...

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....

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...

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 markets to reduce deviations from target capital structures, however, has yet to be examined. We provide the first empirical...

Using a sample of property-liability insurers over the period 1995-2004, we develop and test a model that explains performance as a function of line-of-business diversification and other correlates. Our results indicate that undiversified insurers consistently outperform diversified insurers. In...

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...