IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/regeco/v57y2020i1d10.1007_s11149-019-09396-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operational risk management and regulatory investment constraints on portfolio allocation: evidence from property and casualty insurers

Author

Listed:
  • M. Martin Boyer

    (HEC Montréal (Université de Montréal))

  • Elicia P. Cowins

    (Washington and Lee University)

  • Willie D. Reddic

    (DePaul University)

Abstract

We examine an insurer’s portfolio allocation choice in the context of a regulatory environment where investment in specific asset classes is constrained. We use a year- and insurer- specific proxy, the Investment Regulatory Stringency Index, to show that property and casualty insurers operating in more stringent regulatory environments allocate a smaller proportion of their investment portfolio to taxable assets. Given the market conditions, the environmental risks, and the economic pressure of the period under study, theory suggests the demand for taxable securities would otherwise be greater. We infer from this result that regulation is restricting investment in taxable assets in an undesirable manner. This result is consistent with prior literature. Lastly, we find that operational risk management can mitigate the investment constraints imposed by regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Martin Boyer & Elicia P. Cowins & Willie D. Reddic, 2020. "Operational risk management and regulatory investment constraints on portfolio allocation: evidence from property and casualty insurers," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 20-52, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:regeco:v:57:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11149-019-09396-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11149-019-09396-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11149-019-09396-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11149-019-09396-7?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
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Petroni, Kathy Ruby, 1992. "Optimistic reporting in the property- casualty insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 485-508, December.
    2. Petroni, Kathy R. & Shackelford, Douglas A., 1995. "Taxation, regulation, and the organizational structure of property-casualty insurers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 229-253, December.
    3. Martin F. Grace & J. Tyler Leverty, 2010. "Political Cost Incentives for Managing the Property‐Liability Insurer Loss Reserve," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 21-49, March.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Cummins, J. David & Weiss, Mary A. & Zi, Hongmin, 2000. "Conglomeration versus Strategic Focus: Evidence from the Insurance Industry," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 323-362, October.
    5. Cummins, J. David & Harrington, Scott E. & Klein, Robert, 1995. "Insolvency experience, risk-based capital, and prompt corrective action in property-liability insurance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 511-527, June.
    6. Boyer, M. Martin & Cowins, Elicia P. & Reddic, Willie D., 2019. "Portfolio rebalancing behavior with operating losses and investment regulation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 313-328.
    7. Beaver, William H. & McNichols, Maureen F. & Nelson, Karen K., 2003. "Management of the loss reserve accrual and the distribution of earnings in the property-casualty insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 347-376, August.
    8. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2004. "Do insurers manipulate loss reserves to mask solvency problems?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 393-416, September.
    9. Hendershott, Patric H & Koch, Timothy W, 1980. "The Demand for Tax-Exempt Securities by Financial Institutions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(3), pages 717-727, June.
    10. Jennifer J. Gaver & Jeffrey S. Paterson, 1999. "Managing Insurance Company Financial Statements to Meet Regulatory and Tax Reporting Goals," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 207-241, June.
    11. Leverty, J. Tyler & Grace, Martin F., 2018. "Do elections delay regulatory action?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 409-427.
    12. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2007. "The influence of large clients on office-level auditor oversight: Evidence from the property-casualty insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 299-320, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Boyer, M. Martin & Cowins, Elicia P. & Reddic, Willie D., 2019. "Portfolio rebalancing behavior with operating losses and investment regulation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 313-328.
    2. M. Martin Boyer & Elijah Brewer & Willie Reddic, 2019. "The Association between Complexity and Managerial Discretion in the Property and Casualty Insurance Industry," Quarterly Journal of Finance (QJF), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(03), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Martin F. Grace & J. Tyler Leverty, 2010. "Political Cost Incentives for Managing the Property‐Liability Insurer Loss Reserve," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 21-49, March.
    4. Yi-hsun Lai & Wen-chang Lin & Liang-wei Kuo, 2018. "Forestalling capital regulation or masking financial weakness? Evidence from loss reserve management in the property–liability insurance industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 481-518, February.
    5. Willie Dion Reddic, 2021. "Under pressure: investment behaviour of insurers under different financial and regulatory conditions," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Willie Dion Reddic, 0. "Under pressure: investment behaviour of insurers under different financial and regulatory conditions," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    7. Fiordelisi, Franco & Meles, Antonio & Monferrà, Stefano & Starita, Maria Grazia, 2013. "Personal vs. Corporate Goals: Why do Insurance Companies Manage Loss Reserves?," MPRA Paper 47867, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Hasan, Iftekhar & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2016. "Regulations, institutions and income smoothing by managing technical reserves: International evidence from the insurance industry," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 59(PA), pages 113-129.
    9. Han, Sangyong & Lai, Gene C. & Ho, Chia-Ling, 2018. "Corporate transparency and reserve management: Evidence from US property-liability insurance companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 379-392.
    10. Jiang Cheng & Mary A. Weiss, 2012. "The Role of RBC, Hurricane Exposure, Bond Portfolio Duration, and Macroeconomic and Industry-wide Factors in Property–Liability Insolvency Prediction," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 79(3), pages 723-750, September.
    11. David L. Eckles & Martin Halek, 2010. "Insurer Reserve Error and Executive Compensation," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 329-346, June.
    12. Ege, Matthew S. & Stuber, Sarah B., 2022. "Are auditors rewarded for low audit quality? The case of auditor lenience in the insurance industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    13. Kai Wang & Lei Fang & Jiang Cheng, 2020. "Management of commissions to meet the regulatory requirements: the case of property–casualty insurance in China," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(3), pages 508-534, July.
    14. Fang Sun & Xiangjing Wei, 2019. "Property-Liability Insurers’ Discretionary and Nondiscretionary Loss Reserve Error: Relation with Investor Sentiment," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(03), pages 1-20, September.
    15. Jiang Cheng & J. David Cummins & Tzuting Lin, 2021. "Earnings management surrounding forced CEO turnover: evidence from the U.S. property-casualty insurance industry," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 819-847, April.
    16. Ames Daniel & Graden Bryan S. & Sankara Jomo, 2019. "Who Estimates When It’s Not Required? the Case of Subrogation," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Jiang Cheng & Travis Chow & Tzu‐Ting Lin & Jeffrey Ng, 2022. "The effect of accounting for income tax uncertainty on tax‐deductible loss accruals for private insurers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(2), pages 505-544, June.
    18. Steven W. Pottier & David W. Sommer, 2006. "Opaqueness in the Insurance Industry: Why Are Some Insurers Harder to Evaluate than Others?," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 9(2), pages 149-163, September.
    19. Gaver, Jennifer J. & Paterson, Jeffrey S., 2004. "Do insurers manipulate loss reserves to mask solvency problems?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 393-416, September.
    20. Gaganis, Chrysovalantis & Hasan, Iftekhar & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2016. "Regulations, institutions and income smoothing by managing technical reserves: International evidence from the insurance industry," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 59(PA), pages 113-129.

    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:kap:regeco:v:57:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11149-019-09396-7. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.