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PublicationGlobalization of Insurance Companies: A Blessing or a Curse?A central debate in international business is whether there is a relationship between internationalisation and firm performance, and if so, what its shape and contingent factors are. We use a sample of European insurance companies to show that industry context and cost efficiency are contingent factors of this relationship. Life insurers, particularly those focusing on cost leadership, exhibit a negative impact of globalisation (G) on firm performance (P). We proxy cost leadership by a novel multidimensional measure of cost efficiency and show that it negatively moderates the G-P relationship in the life insurance industry. In contrast, there is no significant G-P relationship and no cost efficiency moderating effect in the nonlife insurance industry. We attribute these results to the higher liability of foreignness driven by greater distance in the globalisation process and by the greater importance of cost efficiency in life insurance as opposed to nonlife insurance.
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PublicationCan Group Incentives Alleviate Moral Hazard? The Role of Pro-Social PreferencesIncentivizing unobservable effort in risky environments, such as in insurance, credit, and labor markets, is vital as moral hazard may otherwise cause significant welfare losses including the outright failure of markets. Ensuring incentive-compatibility through state-contingent contracts between principal and agent, however, is undesirable for risk-averse agents. We provide a theoretical intuition on how pro-social preferences between agents in a joint liability group con-tract can ensure incentive-compatibility. Two independent large-scale behavioral experiments framed in an insurance context support the hypotheses derived from our theory. In particular, effort decreases when making agents’ payoff less state-dependent, but this effect is mitigated with joint liability in a group scheme where agents are additionally motivated by pro-social concerns. Activating strategic motives slightly increases effort further; particularly in non-anonymous groups with high network strength. The results support existing evidence on joint liability groups and further suggest that even if peer pressure to ensure effort provision is absent, such group policies can improve efficiency when agents are pro-social.
Scopus© Citations 11 -
PublicationThe Structure of the Global Reinsurance Market: An Analysis of Efficiency, Scale, and ScopeWe estimate economies of scale and scope as well as cost and revenue efficiency to explain the structure of the global reinsurance market, where large reinsurers dominate but both diversified and specialized reinsurers are competitive. The costs and benefits of size and product diversification are particularly relevant to the reinsurance industry, as risk diversification is central to the industry's business model. We find that reinsurers with total assets less than USD 2.9 billion exhibit scale economies, while those with total assets greater than USD 15.5 billion do not. Large reinsurers are characterized by high cost efficiency, while small reinsurers exhibit superior efficiency only when specialized. Large reinsurers also exhibit revenue scope economies when operating both life and nonlife reinsurance. Moreover, the evidence is in line with the efficient structure hypothesis: cost-efficient reinsurers can charge lower prices without sacrificing profitability.Type:Journal:Volume:
Scopus© Citations 15 -
PublicationThe Determinants of Efficiency and Productivity in the Swiss Insurance IndustryUsing state-of-the-art frontier efficiency methodologies, we study the efficiency and productivity of Swiss insurance companies in the life, property/casualty, and reinsurance sectors from 1997-2013. In this context, we provide the first empirical analysis of internationalization strategies of insurance companies, a topic of high interest in the business and economics literature, but one that has to date not been the focus of efficiency studies in the insurance sector. We find that productivity and efficiency have improved with regard to property/casualty and reinsurance. In the case of life insurance, productivity and efficiency diminished; however, life insurance firms with higher levels of international business exhibit superior efficiency levels. We observe that diversification strategies directed to the European market are more beneficial compared to those targeting markets outside of Europe.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
Scopus© Citations 71 -
PublicationRecent Research Developments Affecting Nonlife Insurance : The CAS Risk Premium Project 2013 UpdateThis article reports the main results of the 2013 Risk Premium Project update, a yearly review of actuarial and finance literature on the theory and empirics of risk assessment for property-casualty insurance. The literature review reveals a broad variety of topics, with a strong leaning toward catastrophe risk, market efficiency, and new valuation techniques. Within the field of catastrophe risk, the role of weather and climate-related risks for the insurance sector is reviewed and both the threats and the opportunities arising from the changing risk landscape are discussed.
Scopus© Citations 1 -
PublicationInsurability of Cyber Risk: An Empirical AnalysisThis paper discusses the adequacy of insurance for managing cyber risk. To this end, we extract 994 cases of cyber losses from an operational risk database and analyse their statistical properties. Based on the empirical results and recent literature, we investigate the insurability of cyber risk by systematically reviewing the set of criteria introduced by Berliner (1982). Our findings emphasise the distinct characteristics of cyber risks compared with other operational risks and bring to light significant problems resulting from highly interrelated losses, lack of data and severe information asymmetries. These problems hinder the development of a sustainable cyber insurance market. We finish by discussing how cyber risk exposure may be better managed and make several sug-gestions for future research.
Scopus© Citations 174 -
PublicationRegulation in Microinsurance Markets: Principles, Practice, and Directions for Future DevelopmentRegulation of any market can either promote or impede its development, thus affecting social welfare. In this paper, we are concerned with the impact of regulation in microinsurance markets. We evaluate existing and potential regulatory mechanisms with regard to its underlying economic rationale, and offer recommendations intended to enhance support and minimize barriers for microinsurance market development. Specifically, we recommend avoiding incentives for regulatory arbitrage; responding to the characteristics of the microinsurance market, including licensing, capital, reinsurance, and distribution systems; enhancing the market through financial literacy initiatives; and providing support in the form of data collection and management training.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
Scopus© Citations 9 -
PublicationRecent Research Developments Affecting Nonlife Insurance : The CAS Risk Premium Project 2012 UpdateThis article reports the main results of the 2012 Risk Premium Project update, a yearly review of actuarial and finance literature on the theory and empirics of risk assessment for property-casualty insurance. Pricing and modeling insurance risks and methodological advancement in risk valuation were popular fields of research in 2012. Of special note is new work on behavioral pricing and liquidity. Additionally, underwriting cycles attracted some controversy, and emerging risks, such as systemic risk and potential interrelations between insurance and other financial markets, were also areas of intense discussion.
Scopus© Citations 4 -
PublicationInsurability in Microinsurance Markets: An Analysis of Problems and Potential SolutionsThis paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the insurability of risks in microinsurance markets. Our aim is to enhance the understanding of impediments to and facilitators of microinsurance from an economic perspective and outline potential solutions. The motivation for conducting this analysis arises from two important aspects. (1) Despite strong growth of microinsurance markets in recent years, more than 90 per cent of the poor population in developing countries have limited or no access to insurance. (2) Industry practitioners frequently highlight problems in the insurability of risks that hinder the development of microinsurance. We review 131 papers and find that the most severe problems stem from insufficient resources for risk evaluation, small size of insurance groups, information asymmetries and the size of the insurance premium. On the basis of the analysis, we discuss a number of potential solutions such as, for example, a cooperative microinsurance architecture.
Scopus© Citations 44
