IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v21y1996i1p41-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investment Earnings and the Characteristics of Life Insurance Firms: New Zealand Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Mike Adams

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, Glasgow Business School, University of Glasgow, 65–71 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8LE, United Kingdom, E-mail: M.B.Adams@accfin.gla.ac.uk)

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between the investment earnings of life insurance firms in New Zealand and their organisational characteristics. Using data for the period 1988–1993, a pooled Weighted Least Squares regression model is estimated. Consistent with expectations, the empirical results indicate that investment earnings were higher for stock companies than for mutuals. They were also positively associated with the size, leverage and underwriting risk of life insurance firms. Life insurance firms holding proportionately more financial than non-financial assets have low investment yields. The liability structure of life insurance firms was unrelated to their investment earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Mike Adams, 1996. "Investment Earnings and the Characteristics of Life Insurance Firms: New Zealand Evidence," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 21(1), pages 41-55, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:21:y:1996:i:1:p:41-55
    DOI: 10.1177/031289629602100106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/031289629602100106
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/031289629602100106?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. Pesando, James E, 1974. "The Interest Sensitivity of the Flow of Funds through Life Insurance Companies: An Econometric Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 29(4), pages 1105-1121, September.
    2. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    3. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    4. Quirin, G David & Waters, William R, 1975. "Market Efficiency and the Cost of Capital: The Strange Case of Fire and Casualty Insurance Companies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 30(2), pages 427-445, May.
    5. Mayers, David & Smith, Clifford W, Jr, 1981. "Contractual Provisions, Organizational Structure, and Conflict Control in Insurance Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(3), pages 407-434, July.
    6. Smith, Bruce D & Stutzer, Michael, 1995. "A Theory of Mutual Formation and Moral Hazard with Evidence from the History of the Insurance Industry," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(2), pages 545-577.
    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. Paulo Maçãs Nunes & Zélia Silva Serrasqueiro & João Leitão, 2008. "Are there nonlinear relationships between the profitability of Portuguese service SME and its specific determinants?," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(8), pages 1313-1341, August.
    2. Kartal Demirgunes, 2016. "The Effect of Liquidity on Financial Performance: Evidence from Turkish Retail Industry," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 63-79, 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. Braun, Alexander & Schmeiser, Hato & Rymaszewski, Przemysław, 2015. "Stock vs. mutual insurers: Who should and who does charge more?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(3), pages 875-889.
    2. Damian Ward, 2003. "Can Independent Distribution Function as a Mode of Corporate Governance?: An Examination of the UK Life Insurance Market," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 7(4), pages 361-384, December.
    3. Dionne, Georges & Gagné, Robert & Nouira, Abdelhakim, 2007. "Determinants of insurers’ performance in risk pooling, risk management, and financial intermediation activities," Working Papers 07-4, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    4. Fabrice Roth, 2012. "Crise et régulation des marchés financiers : Quel impact sur les formes mutuelles dans l'assurance ?," Working Papers halshs-00692342, HAL.
    5. Gene C. Lai & Piman Limpaphayom, 2003. "Organizational Structure and Performance: Evidence From the Nonlife Insurance Industry in Japan," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 735-757, December.
    6. Wise William, 2020. "The Importance of the Efficiency of Mutual Life Insurers: A Comparison to Stock Life Insurers," Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia, Sciendo, vol. 20(1), pages 474-505, June.
    7. Damian Ward & Igor Filatotchev, 2010. "Principal-principal-agency relationships and the role of external governance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 249-261.
    8. Laux, Christian & Muermann, Alexander, 2010. "Financing risk transfer under governance problems: Mutual versus stock insurers," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 333-354, July.
    9. Xie, Xiaoying & Wang, Yuling & Zhao, Guiqin & Lu, Weili, 2017. "Cash holdings between public and private insurers ‒ a partial adjustment approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 80-97.
    10. Magnus Lindmark & Lars-Fredrik Andersson & Mike Adams, 2006. "The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 341-370.
    11. Enya He & David W. Sommer, 2010. "Separation of Ownership and Control: Implications for Board Composition," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 265-295, June.
    12. Klapper, Leora F. & Love, Inessa, 2004. "Corporate governance, investor protection, and performance in emerging markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 703-728, November.
    13. Gerry Gallery & Emerson Cooper & John Sweeting, 2008. "Corporate Disclosure Quality: Lessons from Australian Companies on the Impact of Adopting International Financial Reporting Standards," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 18(3), pages 257-273, September.
    14. Khémiri, Wafa & Noubbigh, Hédi, 2020. "Size-threshold effect in debt-firm performance nexus in the sub-Saharan region: A Panel Smooth Transition Regression approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 335-344.
    15. Shaikh, Ibrahim A. & O'Brien, Jonathan Paul & Peters, Lois, 2018. "Inside directors and the underinvestment of financial slack towards R&D-intensity in high-technology firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 192-201.
    16. Adrian Gourlay & Jonathan Seaton, 2004. "The determinants of firm diversification in UK quoted companies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(18), pages 2059-2071.
    17. Heinrich, Ralph P., 1999. "Complementarities in Corporate Governance - A Survey of the Literature with Special Emphasis on Japan," Kiel Working Papers 947, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Simons, T., 2005. "Public-to-Private Transactions : LBOs, MBOs, MBIs and IBOs," Other publications TiSEM 3b76799c-591c-4d22-b126-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Bo-Hung Chiou & Shen-Ho Chang, 2020. "Influence of Investment Efficiency by Managers and Accounting Conservatism on Idiosyncratic Risks to Investors," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8.
    20. Asmund Rygh & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2018. "Capital Structure of Foreign Direct Investments: A Transaction Cost Analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 389-411, June.

    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:sae:ausman:v:21:y:1996:i:1:p:41-55. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.