IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/gpprii/v41y2016i4d10.1057_s41288-016-0021-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Opaqueness of Structured Bonds: Evidence from the U.S. Insurance Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Sojung Carol Park

    (Seoul National University)

  • Jean Lemaire

    (University of Pennsylvania)

  • Xiaoying Xie

    (California State University, Fullerton)

Abstract

It has been argued that the opaqueness of structured bonds, such as mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and collateral debt obligations, was one of the major causes of the recent financial crisis that started in late 2007. We analyse the evolving nature of information asymmetry inherent in various types of structured bonds by examining the U.S. insurers’ assets. We show that, prior to 2004, structured bonds were not associated with greater information asymmetry; however, holding more multi-class structured bonds, especially privately placed bonds, increased the information asymmetry when evaluating insurers’ assets post-2004. The effect of information asymmetry was more significant with life insurers than with non-life insurers. In addition, by investigating the rating grades of such structured bonds, we find that the market views higher-grade, privately placed, multi-class structured bonds as having the highest information asymmetry among all types of structured bonds post 2004, an effect which is, again, more significant with life insurers. This result shows that structuring complexities and unreliable ratings make structured bonds more opaque than just securitisation itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Sojung Carol Park & Jean Lemaire & Xiaoying Xie, 2016. "The Opaqueness of Structured Bonds: Evidence from the U.S. Insurance Industry," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 41(4), pages 650-676, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:gpprii:v:41:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1057_s41288-016-0021-4
    DOI: 10.1057/s41288-016-0021-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41288-016-0021-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41288-016-0021-4?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. Martin Hellwig, 2009. "Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector: An Analysis of the Subprime-Mortgage Financial Crisis," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 129-207, June.
    2. Tarun Chordia & Richard Roll & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, 2001. "Market Liquidity and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 501-530, April.
    3. Manconi, Alberto & Massa, Massimo & Yasuda, Ayako, 2012. "The role of institutional investors in propagating the crisis of 2007–2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 491-518.
    4. Baranoff, Etti G. & Sager, Thomas W., 2002. "The relations among asset risk, product risk, and capital in the life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1181-1197, June.
    5. Flannery, Mark J. & Kwan, Simon H. & Nimalendran, M., 2004. "Market evidence on the opaqueness of banking firms' assets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 419-460, March.
    6. Simon H. Kwan & Willard T. Carleton, 2010. "Financial Contracting and the Choice between Private Placement and Publicly Offered Bonds," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 907-929, August.
    7. Glosten, Lawrence R. & Milgrom, Paul R., 1985. "Bid, ask and transaction prices in a specialist market with heterogeneously informed traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 71-100, March.
    8. Neal, Robert & Wheatley, Simon M., 1998. "Adverse selection and bid-ask spreads: Evidence from closed-end funds," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 121-149, April.
    9. Lee, Charles M C & Ready, Mark J, 1991. "Inferring Trade Direction from Intraday Data," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(2), pages 733-746, June.
    10. Scott E. Harrington, 2009. "The Financial Crisis, Systemic Risk, and the Future of Insurance Regulation," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 785-819, December.
    11. Andre P. Liebenberg & Lee Colquitt & Harris Hollans, 2010. "The Determinants and Potential Effects of Life Insurer Mortgage Backed Securities Exposure," Journal of Insurance Issues, Western Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-30.
    12. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1991. "The Summary Informativeness of Stock Trades: An Econometric Analysis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 571-595.
    13. Georges Dionne, 2009. "Structured Finance, Risk Management, and the Recent Financial Crisis," Cahiers de recherche 0944, CIRPEE.
    14. Madhavan, Ananth & Richardson, Matthew & Roomans, Mark, 1997. "Why Do Security Prices Change? A Transaction-Level Analysis of NYSE Stocks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(4), pages 1035-1064.
    15. Gary Gorton, 2009. "The Subprime Panic," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(1), pages 10-46, January.
    16. George, Thomas J & Kaul, Gautam & Nimalendran, M, 1991. "Estimation of the Bid-Ask Spread and Its Components: A New Approach," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(4), pages 623-656.
    17. Richard D. Phillips & J. David Cummins & Franklin Allen, 1996. "Financial Pricing of Insurance in the Multiple Line Insurance Company," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-09, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    18. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    19. Easley, David & O'Hara, Maureen, 1992. "Time and the Process of Security Price Adjustment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 576-605, June.
    20. Vink, Dennis, 2007. "ABS, MBS and CDO compared: an empirical analysis," MPRA Paper 10381, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 09 Sep 2008.
    21. Alex Cowley & J. David Cummins, 2005. "Securitization of Life Insurance Assets and Liabilities," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 193-226, June.
    22. J. David Cummins & Richard D. Phillips & Stephen D. Smith, 1997. "Derivatives and corporate risk management: participation and volume decisions in the insurance industry," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 97-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    23. Lin, Ji-Chai & Sanger, Gary C & Booth, G Geoffrey, 1995. "Trade Size and Components of the Bid-Ask Spread," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(4), pages 1153-1183.
    24. Jared F. Egginton & James I. Hilliard & Andre P. Liebenberg & Ivonne A. Liebenberg, 2010. "What Effect Did AIG's Bailout, and the Preceding Events, Have on Its Competitors?," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 13(2), pages 225-249, September.
    25. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1993. "Differences of Opinion Make a Horse Race," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(3), pages 473-506.
    26. Brennan, Michael J. & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 1995. "Investment analysis and price formation in securities markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 361-381, July.
    27. Tao Zhang & Larry A. Cox & Robert A. Van Ness, 2009. "Adverse Selection and the Opaqueness of Insurers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 76(2), pages 295-321, June.
    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. Flannery, Mark J. & Kwan, Simon H. & Nimalendran, M., 2004. "Market evidence on the opaqueness of banking firms' assets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 419-460, March.
    2. Tao Zhang & Larry A. Cox & Robert A. Van Ness, 2009. "Adverse Selection and the Opaqueness of Insurers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 76(2), pages 295-321, June.
    3. Flannery, Mark J. & Kwan, Simon H. & Nimalendran, Mahendrarajah, 2013. "The 2007–2009 financial crisis and bank opaqueness," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 55-84.
    4. Lamoureux, Christopher G. & Wang, Qin, 2015. "Measuring private information in a specialist market," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 92-119.
    5. Pascual, Roberto, 2000. "Adverse selection costs, trading activity and liquidity in the NYSE: an empirical analysis in a dynamic context," UC3M Working papers. Economics 7276, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    6. Chang, Sanders S. & Wang, F. Albert, 2015. "Adverse selection and the presence of informed trading," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 19-33.
    7. Pascual, Roberto, 1999. "How does liquidity behave? A multidimensional analysis of NYSE stocks," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB 6433, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    8. Pascual, Roberto & Pascual-Fuster, Bartolome & Climent, Francisco, 2006. "Cross-listing, price discovery and the informativeness of the trading process," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 144-161, May.
    9. Jagjeev Dosanjh, 2017. "Exchange Initiatives and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Australian Securities Exchange," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 1-2017, January-A.
    10. Ledenyov, Dimitri O. & Ledenyov, Viktor O., 2015. "Wave function method to forecast foreign currencies exchange rates at ultra high frequency electronic trading in foreign currencies exchange markets," MPRA Paper 67470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. repec:uts:finphd:34 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ivanov, Stoyu I., 2016. "Analysis of ETF bid-ask spread components," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 249-259.
    13. Li, Wei-Xuan & French, Joseph J. & Chen, Clara Chia-Sheng, 2017. "Informed trading in S&P index options? Evidence from the 2008 financial crisis," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 40-65.
    14. Chan, Yue-Cheong, 2000. "The price impact of trading on the stock exchange of Hong Kong," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16, February.
    15. Jiang, Christine X. & Kim, Jang-Chul & Wood, Robert A., 2002. "The change in trading activity on volatility and adverse selection component: evidence from ADR splits," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(4-5), pages 323-345.
    16. Medina, Vicente & Pardo, Ángel & Pascual, Roberto, 2014. "The timeline of trading frictions in the European carbon market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 378-394.
    17. Jinliang Li & Chunchi Wu, 2006. "Daily Return Volatility, Bid-Ask Spreads, and Information Flow: Analyzing the Information Content of Volume," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 2697-2740, September.
    18. Pascual, Roberto & Escribano, Alvaro & Tapia, Mikel, 2004. "Adverse selection costs, trading activity and price discovery in the NYSE: An empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 107-128, January.
    19. Monaco, Eleonora & Ibikunle, Gbenga & Palumbo, Riccardo & Zhang, Zeyu, 2022. "The liquidity and trading activity effects of acquisition payment methods: Evidence from the announcements of private firms' acquisitions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    20. Sadka, Ronnie, 2006. "Momentum and post-earnings-announcement drift anomalies: The role of liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 309-349, May.
    21. Jones, Charles M. & Kaul, Gautam & Lipson, Marc L., 1994. "Information, trading, and volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 127-154, August.

    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:pal:gpprii:v:41:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1057_s41288-016-0021-4. 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.palgrave-journals.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.