This paper documents that the bond investments of insurance companies transmit shocks from insurance markets to the real economy. Liquidity windfalls from household insurance purchases increase insurers' demand for corporate bonds. Exploiting the fact that insurers persistently invest in a small...

When firms approach distress, whether they engage in asset substitution (risk shifting) or rebuild equity (risk management) may depend on their access to capital markets. The property-casualty insurance industry has two features that make it ideal for testing this hypothesis: (1) the main losses...

The purpose of the paper is to provide some support to the thesis that insurance may reduce the cost of capital in a company by influencing both the cost of capital components and the need for rising capital. The problem is here perceived from two perspectives the classical concept related to...

Productive firms can access credit markets directly by issuing corporate bonds or by borrowing through financial intermediaries. In this paper, we study the cyclical properties of corporate credit provision through these two types of debt instruments in major advanced economies. We argue that...

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...

We use a unique dataset of product warranty offerings by firms to investigate the effect of a firm's warranty reserve levels on its capital structure decisions. Our sample consists of firms that (i) offer explicit warranties, (ii) likely offer implicit product warranties, and (iii) are in...

This paper examines the impact of Australian firms. warranty policies on their capital structures. The sample consists of 261 firms and 937 firm-years for Australian public firms for the period 2007-2010. The results suggest that warranty policies impact on Australian firms. capital structures....

Traditional variable annuities build retirement income for annuitants through investments in stocks and bonds. These annuities are variable because their performance depends upon the performance of uncertain financial markets. The risk of poor performance lies solely upon annuitants, rather than...

This study investigates scope economies, organizational form, and insolvency risk for a sample of takaful firms in 19 countries. Firm efficiency is estimated using data envelopment analysis, performance is also gauged using return on equity and return on assets, and insolvency risk is measured...