IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2112.11265.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the decomposition of an insurer's profits and losses

Author

Listed:
  • Marcus C. Christiansen

Abstract

Current reporting standards for insurers require a decomposition of observed profits and losses in such a way that changes in the insurer's balance sheet can be attributed to specified risk factors. Generating such a decomposition is a nontrivial task because balance sheets generally depend on the risk factors in a non-linear way. This paper starts from an axiomatic perspective on profit and loss decompositions and finds that the axioms necessarily lead to infinitesimal sequential updating (ISU) decompositions, provided that the latter exist and are stable, whereas the current practice is rather to use sequential updating (SU) decompositions. The generality of the axiomatic approach makes the results useful also beyond insurance applications wherever profits and losses shall be additively decomposed in a risk-oriented manner.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcus C. Christiansen, 2021. "On the decomposition of an insurer's profits and losses," Papers 2112.11265, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2112.11265
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.11265
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Biewen, 2014. "A general decomposition formula with interaction effects," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(9), pages 636-642, 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. Celeste K. Carruthers & Marianne H. Wanamaker, 2017. "Separate and Unequal in the Labor Market: Human Capital and the Jim Crow Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 655-696.
    2. Becker, Gideon, 2015. "Econometric analysis of the wealth gap between East and West Germany," University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics 87, University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics.
    3. Li, Phillip & Mayock, Tom, 2019. "Mortgage characteristics and the racial incidence of default," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    4. Iryna Kyzyma & Alessio Fusco & Philippe Van Kerm, 2022. "Distributional Change: Assessing the Contribution of Household Income Sources," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(1), pages 158-184, February.
    5. Nerijus Černiauskas & Denisa M. Sologon & Cathal O’Donoghue & Linas Tarasonis, 2022. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Lithuania: The Role of Policy, Labor Market, Income, and Demographics," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S1), pages 131-166, April.
    6. Naszódi, Anna, 2022. "Hogyan szálazzuk szét a megfigyelhető változások okait? [Decomposing observable changes into their causes]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1407-1432.
    7. Anna Naszodi, 2023. "What do surveys say about the historical trend of inequality and the applicability of two table-transformation methods?," Papers 2303.05895, arXiv.org.
    8. Makarski, Krzysztof & Tyrowicz, Joanna, 2023. "Preference for redistribution during structural change with labor mobility frictions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Julian Jetses & Marcus C. Christiansen, 2021. "A General Surplus Decomposition Principle in Life Insurance," Papers 2111.12967, arXiv.org.
    10. Thor O. Thoresen & Zhiyang Jia & Peter J. Lambert, 2016. "Is there More Redistribution Now? A Review of Methods for Evaluating Tax Redistributional Effects," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 72(3), pages 302-333, September.
    11. Nerijus Cerniauskas & Denisa M. Sologon & Cathal O’Donoghue & Linas Tarasonis, 2020. "Changes in income inequality in Lithuania: the role of policy, labour market structure, returns and demographics," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 71, Bank of Lithuania.
    12. Anna Naszodi, 2023. "Direct comparison or indirect comparison via a series of counterfactual decompositions?," Papers 2303.04905, arXiv.org.
    13. Ali Etezady & F. Atiyya Shaw & Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Giovanni Circella, 2021. "What drives the gap? Applying the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to examine generational differences in transportation-related attitudes," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 857-883, April.
    14. Jinjing Li & Hai Anh La & Denisa M. Sologon, 2021. "Policy, Demography, and Market Income Volatility: What Shaped Income Distribution and Inequality in Australia Between 2002 and 2016?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 196-221, March.
    15. LI Jinjing & LA Hai anh & SOLOGON Denisa, 2019. "Policy, demography and market income volatility: What was shaping income distribution in Australia between 2002 and 2016?," LISER Working Paper Series 2019-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    16. Jules Linden & Cathal O’Donoghue & Denisa M. Sologon, 2023. "Decomposing the distributional impact of carbon taxation across six EU countries - Comparing the role of budget shares, carbon intensity, savings rates, and asset ownership," LISER Working Paper Series 2023-10, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2112.11265. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.