IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v11y1993i4p56-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Insurance Company Risk Exposure: Market Evidence And Policy Implications

Author

Listed:
  • ELIJAH BREWER III
  • THOMAS H. MONDSCHEAN

Abstract

Life insurance company (LIC) risk exposure increased during the 1980s while capital ratios declined. State guarantee funds that exist to handle policyholder's losses in the event of LIC failure can create incentives for excessive risk taking, just as the federal deposit insurance system did for savings and loan associations. This paper examines the relationship between stock market risk and LIC risk exposure. A sample of 44 LICs revealed that stock market risk is positively related to financial leverage as well as to differences in asset mix. This finding confirms that market data can help identify LICs with greater risk exposure.

Suggested Citation

  • Elijah Brewer Iii & Thomas H. Mondschean, 1993. "Life Insurance Company Risk Exposure: Market Evidence And Policy Implications," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 11(4), pages 56-69, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:11:y:1993:i:4:p:56-69
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1993.tb00401.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1993.tb00401.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1993.tb00401.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elijah Brewer & Thomas H. Mondschean, 1993. "Junk bond holdings, premium tax offsets, and risk exposure at life insurance companies," Working Paper Series, Issues in Financial Regulation 93-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    2. Brickley, James A. & James, Christopher M., 1986. "Access to deposit insurance, insolvency rules and the stock returns of financial institutions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 345-371, July.
    3. Richard W. Kopcke & Richard E. Randall, 1991. "The financial condition and regulation of insurance companies: an overview," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 35, pages 1-18.
    4. Brewer, Elijah III, 1989. "Relationship between bank holding company risk and nonbank activity," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 337-353, November.
    5. James R. Barth & Philip F. Bartholomew & Carol J. Labich, 1989. "Moral hazard and the thrift crisis: an analysis of 1988 resolution," Proceedings 246, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    6. Wall, Larry D., 1987. "Has bank holding companies' diversification affected their risk of failure?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 313-326, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elijah Brewer III & Thomas H. Mondschean & Philip Strahan, 1996. "The Role of Monitoring in Reducing the Moral Hazard Problem Associated with Government Guarantees: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-15, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    2. Eugene N. White, 1998. "The Legacy of Deposit Insurance: The Growth, Spread, and Cost of Insuring Financial Intermediaries," NBER Chapters, in: The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century, pages 87-121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lim, Terence & Lo, Andrew W. & Merton, Robert C. & Scholes, Myron S., 2006. "The Derivatives Sourcebook," Foundations and Trends(R) in Finance, now publishers, vol. 1(5–6), pages 365-572, April.
    2. Gueyie, Jean-Pierre & Lai, Van Son, 2003. "Bank moral hazard and the introduction of official deposit insurance in Canada," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 247-273.
    3. Mohamed Nurullah & Sotiris K. Staikouras, 2008. "The Separation of Banking from Insurance: Evidence from Europe," Multinational Finance Journal, Multinational Finance Journal, vol. 12(3-4), pages 157-184, September.
    4. Gallo, John G. & Apilado, Vincent P. & Kolari, James W., 1996. "Commercial bank mutual fund activities: Implications for bank risk and profitability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(10), pages 1775-1791, December.
    5. Dung V. Tran & M. Kabir Hassan & Isabelle Girerd‐Potin & Pascal Louvet, 2020. "Activity Strategies, Agency Problems, And Bank Risk," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(3), pages 575-613, August.
    6. Elijah Brewer III & Thomas H. Mondschean & Philip Strahan, 1996. "The Role of Monitoring in Reducing the Moral Hazard Problem Associated with Government Guarantees: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-15, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    7. Randall Pozdena, 1988. "Banks affiliated with bank holding companies: a new look at their performance," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Fall, pages 29-40.
    8. J. Cummins & Hongmin Zi, 1998. "Comparison of Frontier Efficiency Methods: An Application to the U.S. Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 131-152, October.
    9. Hesna Genay, 1998. "Assessing the condition of Japanese banks: how informative are accounting earnings?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 22(Q IV), pages 12-34.
    10. Li, Li & Zhang, Yu, 2013. "Are there diversification benefits of increasing noninterest income in the Chinese banking industry?," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 151-165.
    11. Kane, Edward J & Unal, Haluk, 1990. "Modeling Structural and Temporal Variation in the Market's Valuation of Banking Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 113-136, March.
    12. Peter A. Brous & Keith Leggett, 1996. "Wealth Effects Of Enforcement Actions Against Financially Distressed Banks," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 19(4), pages 561-577, December.
    13. E. Dinenis & S. K. Staikouras, 1998. "Interest rate changes and common stock returns of financial institutions: evidence from the UK," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 113-127.
    14. María Soledad Martínez & Sergio Schmukler, 1999. "Do Depositors Punish Banks For "Bad" Behavior?: Examining Market Discipline In Argentina, Chile, And Mexico," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 48, Central Bank of Chile.
    15. Franklin Allen & Douglas Gale, 2007. "Systemic Risk and Regulation," NBER Chapters, in: The Risks of Financial Institutions, pages 341-368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Core, John E. & Schrand, Catherine M., 1999. "The effect of accounting-based debt covenants on equity valuation1," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-34, February.
    17. Armen Hovakimian & Edward Kane & Luc Laeven, 2003. "How Country and Safety-Net Characteristics Affect Bank Risk-Shifting," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 23(3), pages 177-204, June.
    18. Gorton, Gary & Winton, Andrew, 2003. "Financial intermediation," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 431-552, Elsevier.
    19. Warren P. Hogan & Ian G. Sharpe, 1990. "Risk-Based Capital Adequacy of Australian Banks," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 15(1), pages 177-201, June.
    20. Barbara Casu & Panagiotis Dontis†Charitos & Sotiris Staikouras & Jonathan Williams, 2016. "Diversification, Size and Risk: the Case of Bank Acquisitions of Nonbank Financial Firms," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 22(2), pages 235-275, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:11:y:1993:i:4:p:56-69. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.