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Are publicly held firms less efficient? Evidence from the US property-liability insurance industry

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  • Xie, Xiaoying

Abstract

This paper studies the performance of publicly held firms in the US property-liability insurance industry by analyzing companies that issued initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1994 to 2005, using private firms as the benchmark. I investigate ex ante determinants and ex post effects of IPOs on firm efficiency, operating performance, and other financials. I also analyze stock returns and follow-on SEO and acquisition activities to provide further information on IPO motivation. The paper finds that the likelihood of an IPO significantly increases with firm size and premium growth. IPO firms experience no post-issue underperformance in efficiency, operations, or stock returns; register improvement in allocative and cost efficiency; and reduce financial leverage and reinsurance usage. Moreover, IPO firms are active in follow-on SEO issues and acquisition activities. The findings are mostly consistent with the theory that firms go public for easier access to capital and to ease capital constraints.

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  • Xie, Xiaoying, 2010. "Are publicly held firms less efficient? Evidence from the US property-liability insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1549-1563, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:7:p:1549-1563
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2013_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Laokulrach Marisa, 2019. "Operating performance of SMEs in Thailand after going public," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, March.
    4. Licheng Jin & Gene Lai & Chia-Ling Ho, 2022. "An analysis of post-demutualisation in the property–liability insurance industry," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(2), pages 279-320, April.
    5. Tarun Kumar Soni & Akshita Arora & Thi Le, 2022. "Firm-Specific Determinants of Firm Performance in the Hospitality Sector in India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Xin Che & Stephen G. Fier & Andre P. Liebenberg, 2019. "The effect of predation risk on cash holdings: Empirical evidence from the U.S. property‐liability insurance industry," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 22(3), pages 329-358, September.
    7. Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Iftekhar Hasan & Fotios Pasiouras, 2013. "Efficiency and stock returns: evidence from the insurance industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 429-442, December.
    8. Hamid Reza Mohammadi Ojan & Mohammad Karimi & Ebrahim Kardgar & Mehdi Ahrari, 2018. "The Extraction of Influencing Indicators for Scoring of Insurance Companies Branches Based on GMDH Neural Network," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 22(2), pages 527-556, Spring.
    9. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    10. Chung-Chu Chuang & Yu-Chieh Tang, 2015. "Asymmetric Dependence between Efficiency and Market Power in the Taiwanese Life Insurance Industry," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 62(4), pages 511-525, September.

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