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Mutual versus stock insurers: Fair premium, capital, and solvency

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  • Laux, Christian
  • Muermann, Alexander

Abstract

Mutual insurance companies and stock insurance companies are different forms of organized risk sharing: policyholders and owners are two distinct groups in a stock insurer, while they are one and the same in a mutual. This distinction is relevant to raising capital, selling policies, and sharing risk in the presence of financial distress. Up-front capital is necessary for a stock insurer to offer insurance at a fair premium, but not for a mutual. In the presence of an ownermanager conflict, holding capital is costly. Free-rider and commitment problems limit the degree of capitalization that a stock insurer can obtain. The mutual form, by tying sales of policies to the provision of capital, can overcome these problems at the potential cost of less diversified owners.

Suggested Citation

  • Laux, Christian & Muermann, Alexander, 2006. "Mutual versus stock insurers: Fair premium, capital, and solvency," CFS Working Paper Series 2006/26, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfswop:200626
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Renaud Bourlès, 2006. "How Can Insurance Companies Compete With MutualInsurers? The Role of Commitment," Working Papers halshs-00410765, HAL.
    2. de Haan, Leo & Kakes, Jan, 2010. "Are non-risk based capital requirements for insurance companies binding?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1618-1627, July.
    3. Marietta JANOWICZ-LOMOTT & Krzysztof LYSKAWA, 2011. "Domestic insurers in Poland and the global crisis," Scientific Bulletin - Economic Sciences, University of Pitesti, vol. 10(1), pages 81-92.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ownership Structure; Insurance; Qwner-Manager Conflict; Capital; Default;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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