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The Demise of the Mutual Organizational Form: An Investigation of the Life Insurance Industry

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  • OTGONTSETSEG ERHEMJAMTS
  • J. TYLER LEVERTY

Abstract

We investigate the role of organizational structure in financial services markets by examining the U.S. life insurance industry. Traditionally, stock and mutual life insurers were equally represented, but now the industry is mainly composed of stock firms. We find operational efficiency, access to capital, and tax savings are important determinants for this shift. The incentive to demutualize differs by the type of conversion: full demutualization is chosen for efficiency and access to capital reasons and partial conversion, using a mutual holding company, is chosen for tax savings. Firm operational efficiency improves after conversion. We also find the efficiency of the stock organizational form dominates that of the mutual structure during our sample period, 1995 to 2004. Copyright (c) 2010 The Ohio State University.

Suggested Citation

  • Otgontsetseg Erhemjamts & J. Tyler Leverty, 2010. "The Demise of the Mutual Organizational Form: An Investigation of the Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(6), pages 1011-1036, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcb:jmoncb:v:42:y:2010:i:6:p:1011-1036
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    Cited by:

    1. Alfred A. Haug & Vincent C. Blackburn, 2013. "Efficiency Aspects of Government Secondary School Finances in New South Wales: Results from a Two-Stage Double-Bootstrap DEA at the School Level," Working Papers 1316, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2013.
    2. 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.
    3. Markku Kaustia & Samuli Knüpfer & Sami Torstila, 2016. "Stock Ownership and Political Behavior: Evidence from Demutualizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 945-963, April.
    4. Dionne, Georges & Harrington, Scott, 2017. "Insurance and Insurance Markets," Working Papers 17-2, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    5. Bayar, Tumennasan & Cornett, Marcia Millon & Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Leverty, Ty & Tehranian, Hassan, 2018. "An examination of the relation between strategic interaction among industry firms and firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 248-263.
    6. Jacob A. Bikker, 2017. "Performance of the life insurance industry under pressure: efficiency, competition and consolidation," Chapters, in: Jacob A. Bikker & Laura Spierdijk (ed.), Handbook of Competition in Banking and Finance, chapter 9, pages 152-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Wirfs, Jan Hendrik, 2016. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in the Swiss insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 703-714.
    8. Jacob A. Bikker, 2017. "Performance of the life insurance industry under pressure: efficiency, competition and consolidation," Chapters, in: Jacob A. Bikker & Laura Spierdijk (ed.), Handbook of Competition in Banking and Finance, chapter 9, pages 152-182, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Shiwakoti, Radha K. & Iqbal, Abdullah & Funnell, Warwick, 2018. "Organizational form, business strategies and the demise of demutualized building societies in the UK," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 337-350.
    10. 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.
    11. Riccardo Ferretti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Alex Castelli, 2019. "Security-voting structure and equity financing in the banking sector: ‘one head-one vote’ versus ‘one share-one vote’," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(4), pages 1063-1097, December.
    12. Fabrice Roth, 2012. "Crise et régulation des marchés financiers : Quel impact sur les formes mutuelles dans l'assurance ?," Working Papers halshs-00692342, HAL.
    13. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin, 2012. "Organization and efficiency in the international insurance industry: A cross-frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 454-468.
    14. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo & Schaper, Philipp, 2017. "Get the Balance Right: A Simultaneous Equation Model to Analyze Growth, Profitability, and Safety," Working Papers on Finance 1716, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    15. Antti Talonen & Harri Talonen & Jari Stenvall & Iiro Jussila, 2020. "Communicating the economic value of customer ownership in insurance: A qualitative analysis of annual reports," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 23(3), pages 243-267, September.
    16. Kim Economides & Alfred A. Haug & Joe McIntyre, 2013. "Are Courts Slow? Exposing and Measuring the Invisible Determinants of Case Disposition Time," Working Papers 1317, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2013.
    17. Jakša Krišto & Antti Talonen & Hrvoje Pauković, 2021. "Analysis of community‐owned mutual insurers' prospects of development in CEE countries: Outlining research agenda," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 24(3), pages 243-261, September.
    18. 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.
    19. A. Joseph Warburton, 2012. "Competition in Financial Services: Evidence from British Mutual Funds," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 827-858, December.
    20. Greg Niehaus, 2023. "Personal taxes, cost of insurer equity capital, and the case of offshore hedge fund reinsurers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(2), pages 249-281, June.

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