IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04159696.html

Why do insurers fail? A comparison of life and non-life insolvencies using a new international database

Author

Listed:
  • George Overton

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Olivier de Bandt

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Plantin & Rocher (2016) document how insurers often engage in risk-shifting years before the materialization of a failure. This paper empirically examines this claim by testing the mechanisms of insurance insolvency, using a first-of-its-kind international database assembled by the authors which merges data on balance sheet and income statements together with information on impairments over the last 30 years. Employing different fixed effects logistic specifications and parametric survival models, the paper presents evidence, on top of the role of profitability as a leading indicator of failures, of the intrinsic asymmetries between the life and non-life insurance sectors. In the life sector, asset mix is highly significant in predicting an impairment, while operating efficiency plays no role. In the non-life sector, the opposite proves true.

Suggested Citation

  • George Overton & Olivier de Bandt, 2020. "Why do insurers fail? A comparison of life and non-life insolvencies using a new international database," Working Papers hal-04159696, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04159696
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04159696
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04159696/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Subramanian, Ajay & Wang, Jinjing, 2021. "Capital, aggregate risk, insurance prices and regulation," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 156-192.
    3. Henri Fraisse & Christophe Hurlin, 2024. "Modèles internes des banques pour le calcul du capital réglementaire (IRB) et intelligence artificielle," Débats Economiques et financiers 44, Banque de France.
    4. Monnet, Eric & , & Ungaro, Stefano, 2021. "The Real Effects of Bank Runs. Evidence from the French Great Depression (1930-1931)," CEPR Discussion Papers 16054, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    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:hal:wpaper:hal-04159696. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.