IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jrinsu/v82y2015i3p505-530.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Demand for Insurance: New Evidence From the U.S. Terrorism and Property Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Erwann Michel-Kerjan
  • Paul Raschky
  • Howard Kunreuther

Abstract

type="main" xml:lang="en"> Since the passage of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, corporate terrorism insurance is sold as a separate policy from commercial property coverage. In this article, we determine whether companies differ in their demand for property and terrorism insurance. Using a unique data set of insurance policies purchased by large U.S. firms, combined with financial information of the corporate clients and of the insurance provider, we apply a two-stage least squares approach to obtain consistent estimates of premium elasticity of corporate demand for property and terrorism coverage. Our findings suggest that both are rather price inelastic and that corporate demand for terrorism insurance is significantly more price inelastic than demand for property insurance. We further find a negative relation between the solvency ratios of both property and terrorism risk coverage, with a stronger effect on the latter, indicating that companies use their ability to self-insure as a substitute for market insurance. Our results are robust to the application of alternative estimators as well as changes in the econometric specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Erwann Michel-Kerjan & Paul Raschky & Howard Kunreuther, 2015. "Corporate Demand for Insurance: New Evidence From the U.S. Terrorism and Property Markets," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 82(3), pages 505-530, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:82:y:2015:i:3:p:505-530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Cummins, J. David & Lewis, Christopher M. & Wei, Ran, 2004. "An empirical analysis of the economic impact of federal terrorism reinsurance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 861-898, July.
    2. Greenwald, Bruce C & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1990. "Asymmetric Information and the New Theory of the Firm: Financial Constraints and Risk Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 160-165, May.
    3. Craig E. Landry & Mohammad R. Jahan‐Parvar, 2011. "Flood Insurance Coverage in the Coastal Zone," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 361-388, June.
    4. Browne, Mark J & Hoyt, Robert E, 2000. "The Demand for Flood Insurance: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 291-306, May.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    6. Aunon-Nerin, Daniel & Ehling, Paul, 2008. "Why firms purchase property insurance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 298-312, December.
    7. Hentschel, Ludger & Kothari, S. P., 2001. "Are Corporations Reducing or Taking Risks with Derivatives?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 93-118, March.
    8. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:4:p:1213-1243 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Barry J. Barnett & Jerry R. Skees, 1995. "Region and Crop Specific Models of the Demand for Federal Crop Insurance," Journal of Insurance Issues, Western Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 18(2), pages 47-65.
    10. Ganderton, Philip T. & Brookshire, David S. & McKee, Michael & Stewart, Steve & Thurston, Hale, 2000. "Buying Insurance for Disaster-Type Risks: Experimental Evidence," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 271-289, May.
    11. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    12. Martin F. Grace & Robert W. Klein & Paul R. Kleindorfer, 2004. "Homeowners Insurance With Bundled Catastrophe Coverage," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 351-379, September.
    13. Shaik, Saleem & Coble, Keith H. & Knight, Thomas O. & Baquet, Alan E. & Patrick, George F., 2008. "Crop Revenue and Yield Insurance Demand: A Subjective Probability Approach," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 40(3), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 203-224, Winter.
    15. René M. Stulz, 1996. "Rethinking Risk Management," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 9(3), pages 8-25, September.
    16. Warner, Jerold B, 1977. "Bankruptcy Costs: Some Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 337-347, May.
    17. John R. Graham & Daniel A. Rogers, 2002. "Do Firms Hedge in Response to Tax Incentives?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(2), pages 815-839, April.
    18. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    19. Hayne E. Leland., 1998. "Agency Costs, Risk Management, and Capital Structure," Research Program in Finance Working Papers RPF-278, University of California at Berkeley.
    20. Smith, Clifford W. & Stulz, René M., 1985. "The Determinants of Firms' Hedging Policies," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 391-405, December.
    21. Robert E. Hoyt & Andre P. Liebenberg, 2011. "The Value of Enterprise Risk Management," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 78(4), pages 795-822, December.
    22. Geczy, Christopher & Minton, Bernadette A & Schrand, Catherine, 1997. "Why Firms Use Currency Derivatives," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(4), pages 1323-1354, September.
    23. Allayannis, George & Ofek, Eli, 2001. "Exchange rate exposure, hedging, and the use of foreign currency derivatives," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 273-296, April.
    24. Mayers, David & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1982. "On the Corporate Demand for Insurance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(2), pages 281-296, April.
    25. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    26. Nance, Deana R & Smith, Clifford W, Jr & Smithson, Charles W, 1993. "On the Determinants of Corporate Hedging," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 267-284, March.
    27. Mayers, David & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1990. "On the Corporate Demand for Insurance: Evidence from the Reinsurance Market," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(1), pages 19-40, January.
    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. Erwann Michel‐Kerjan & Howard Kunreuther, 2018. "A Successful (Yet Somewhat Untested) Case of Disaster Financing: Terrorism Insurance Under TRIA, 2002–2020," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 21(1), pages 157-180, March.
    2. Paul Hudson & Annegret H. Thieken, 2022. "The presence of moral hazard regarding flood insurance and German private businesses," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 112(2), pages 1295-1319, June.
    3. Simone Krummaker, 2019. "Firm's demand for insurance: An explorative approach," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 279-301, September.
    4. Joshua D. Woodard & Jing Yi, 2020. "Estimation of Insurance Deductible Demand Under Endogenous Premium Rates," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 87(2), pages 477-500, June.
    5. O. Kuzmenko, M. Kascha, 2017. "Modeling the diagnostics of bankruptcy on Ukraine's insurance market based on harmonic analysis," Economy and Forecasting, Valeriy Heyets, issue 1, pages 146-157.
    6. Yugang Ding & Peiyun Deng, 2024. "Learning from natural disasters: Evidence from enterprise property insurance take-up in China," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 299-334, June.
    7. Woodard, Joshua, 2016. "Estimation of Insurance Deductible Demand under Endogenous Premium Rates," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236151, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Alexander Braun & Marius Fischer, 2018. "Determinants of the Demand for Political Risk Insurance: Evidence from an International Survey," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(3), pages 397-419, July.
    9. Yutaro Izumi & Hiroyuki Nakata & Yasuyuki Sawada & Kunio Sekiguchi, 2024. "Building Business Resilience to Disasters," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1223, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.

    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. Erwann Michel-Kerjan & Paul A. Raschky & Howard C. Kunreuther, 2009. "Corporate Demand for Insurance: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Market for Catastrophe and Non-Catastrophe Risks," Working Papers hal-00372420, HAL.
    2. Aunon-Nerin, Daniel & Ehling, Paul, 2008. "Why firms purchase property insurance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 298-312, December.
    3. Monda, Barbara & Giorgino, Marco & Modolin, Ileana, 2013. "Rationales for Corporate Risk Management - A Critical Literature Review," MPRA Paper 45420, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bartram, Söhnke M., 2019. "Corporate hedging and speculation with derivatives," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 9-34.
    5. Doukas, John A. & Mandal, Sonik, 2018. "CEO risk preferences and hedging decisions: A multiyear analysis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 131-153.
    6. Huang, Pinghsun & Huang, Hsin-Yi & Zhang, Yan, 2019. "Do firms hedge with foreign currency derivatives for employees?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 418-440.
    7. Lutz Hahnenstein & Gerrit Köchling & Peter N. Posch, 2021. "Do firms hedge in order to avoid financial distress costs? New empirical evidence using bank data," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3-4), pages 718-741, March.
    8. Söhnke M. Bartram & Gregory W. Brown & Frank R. Fehle, 2009. "International Evidence on Financial Derivatives Usage," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 185-206, March.
    9. Chen-Miao Lin & Stephen D. Smith, 2005. "Hedging, financing, and investment decisions: a simultaneous equations framework," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2005-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    10. Fauver, Larry & Naranjo, Andy, 2010. "Derivative usage and firm value: The influence of agency costs and monitoring problems," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 719-735, December.
    11. Kim, Huong Trang & Papanastassiou, Marina & Nguyen, Quang, 2017. "Multinationals and the impact of corruption on financial derivatives use and firm value: Evidence from East Asia," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 39-59.
    12. Lel, Ugur, 2012. "Currency hedging and corporate governance: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 221-237.
    13. Guay, Wayne & Kothari, S. P, 2003. "How much do firms hedge with derivatives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 423-461, December.
    14. Giorgio Stefano Bertinetti & Elisa Cavezzali & Gloria Gardenal, 2013. "The effect of the enterprise risk management implementation on the firm value of European companies," Working Papers 10, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    15. Jiyeon Yun & James M. Carson & David L. Eckles, 2023. "Executive compensation and corporate risk management," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(2), pages 521-557, June.
    16. Kim, Sungjae F. & Chance, Don M., 2018. "An empirical analysis of corporate currency risk management policies and practices," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 109-128.
    17. Fabling, Richard & Grimes, Arthur, 2010. "Cutting the hedge: Exporters' dynamic currency hedging behaviour," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 241-253, June.
    18. Mohamed Mnasri & Georges Dionne & Jean-Pierre Gueyie, 2013. "The Maturity Structure of Corporate Hedging: the Case of the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry," Cahiers de recherche 1337, CIRPEE.
    19. Oliver Entrop & Matthias F. Merkel, 2020. "Managers’ research education, the use of FX derivatives and corporate speculation," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 869-901, August.
    20. Hege, Ulrich & Hutson, Elaine & Laing, Elaine, 2018. "The impact of mandatory governance changes on financial risk management," TSE Working Papers 18-889, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

    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:jrinsu:v:82:y:2015:i:3:p:505-530. 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/ariaaea.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.