This paper explores the relation between capital and risk in the life insurance industry in the period after the adoption of life risk-based capital (RBC) regulation. To examine this issue, we use a simultaneous-equation partial-adjustment model. Three equations express the interrelations among capital and two measures of risk: product risk and asset risk. The asset-risk measure used in this paper reflects credit or solvency risk as in RBC. Product risk assessment for life insurance products is rationalized by transaction-cost economics - contractual uncertainty.A significant finding is that for life insurers the relation between capital and asset risk is positive. This agrees with prior studies for the property/casualty insurance industry and some banking studies. But the relation between capital and product risk is negative. This is consistent with the hypothesized impact of guarantee funds in other studies. The contrast between the positive relation of capital to asset risk and the negative relation of capital to product risk underscores the importance of distinguishing these two components of risk.

Product risk is important to firms' enterprise risk management. This dissertation focuses on product risk in the U.S. life insurance and health insurance industries. In particular, we add new dimensions to the measurement of product risk for these industries, and we explore how these industries manage product risk in a context of other enterprise risks. In this dissertation, we identify new product risks, propose new measures, and study the management of these risks. In the life insurance industry, we identify a new type of product risk, the guarantee risk, caused by variable annuities with guaranteed living benefits (VAGLB). We propose a value-at-risk type measure inspired by the risk-based capital C3 Phase II to quantify the guarantee risk. In the health insurance industry, where the degree of uncertainty varies for different types of health insurance policies, we develop four exposure-based risk measures to capture health insurers' product risks. Then we study how life and health insurers manage product risks (and asset risks) by using capital in the context of other risks and appropriate controls. We add to the literature in the life insurance industry by examining the relationship between capital and risks when the guarantee risk is accounted for. In the health insurance industry, to our knowledge, no similar research on the relationship between capital and risks has been conducted. In view of the current topicality of health insurance, our research therefore adds a timely contribution to the understanding of health insurer risk management in an era of health care reform. Capital structure theories, transaction cost economics, and insurers' risk-taking behaviors provide the theoretical foundation for our research. As to methodology, we implement standard capital structure models for the life and health insurance industries using data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) annual filings of life/health insurers and health insurers. Simultaneous equations modeling is used to model life and health insurers' enterprise risk management. And the estimation is conducted by the generalized estimation equations (GEE). We find that both U.S. life/health insurers and health insurers prudently build up capital as they experience more product risk and asset risk controlling for the other enterprise risks. We also find that life/health insurers may be using derivatives as a partial substitute for capital when managing new product risk caused by VAGLB, the guarantee risk.

The aim of the book is to provide an overview of risk management in life insurance companies. The focus is twofold: (1) to provide a broad view of the different topics needed for risk management and (2) to provide the necessary tools and techniques to concretely apply them in practice. Much emphasis has been put into the presentation of the book so that it presents the theory in a simple but sound manner. The first chapters deal with valuation concepts which are defined and analysed, the emphasis is on understanding the risks in corresponding assets and liabilities such as bonds, shares and also insurance liabilities. In the following chapters risk appetite and key insurance processes and their risks are presented and analysed. This more general treatment is followed by chapters describing asset risks, insurance risks and operational risks - the application of models and reporting of the corresponding risks is central. Next, the risks of insurance companies and of special insurance products are looked at. The aim is to show the intrinsic risks in some particular products and the way they can be analysed. The book finishes with emerging risks and risk management from a regulatory point of view, the standard model of Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test are analysed and explained. The book has several mathematical appendices which deal with the basic mathematical tools, e.g. probability theory, stochastic processes, Markov chains and a stochastic life insurance model based on Markov chains. Moreover, the appendices look at the mathematical formulation of abstract valuation concepts such as replicating portfolios, state space deflators, arbitrage free pricing and the valuation of unit linked products with guarantees. The various concepts in the book are supported by tables and figures.

Like any other company, life insurance companies maintain a combination of debt and equity for their long-term financing, which forms their capital structure. Many theories have been developed in the literature to focus upon the determinants that are likely to affect leverage decisions of the life insurance firms in the post life Risk-Based Capital (RBC) regulation era. This report documents the application of multiple regression techniques to derive and analyze a Capital Asset Ratio (CAP) model based on the data pertaining to a large number of life insurance companies during 2000 to 2004. The data set is organized as panel data. Model coefficients, together with the error structure, are analyzed using SAS software to develop a valid model that tries to explain the Capital to Asset Ratio (CAP) for life insurers in terms of various variables of interest. The latter include return on capital, total assets, and two measures of risk: asset risk and product risk, etc. A balanced panel dataset was extracted from the given unbalanced input dataset containing missing entries. In addition, a selected few of the explanatory variables were chosen from a large group present in the input dataset based on previous work on relations among asset risk, product risk and capital in the life insurance industry by Etti G. Baranoff and Thomas W. Sager (2002). Fixed Effects model was chosen based on the assumption that the firm-specific effects were correlated to the explanatory variables. Differencing method was employed so that OLS estimator could safely be used for the coefficients in the regression model. Based on the proposed model, it is found that Capital to Asset Ratio has positive relationships with product risk and return on capital, with the corporate form of organization, and with membership in an affiliated group of companies. On the other hand, it has a negative relationship with company's size and the ratio of life premiums or annuity premiums to the total premiums generated.

Major challenges for life insurance companies have been posed by an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry and the emergence of non-traditional competitors such as banks, mutual fund companies and investment advisory firms. This is the first book to analyze the determinants of firm performance in the life insurance industry by identifying the `best practices' employed by leading insurers to succeed in this dynamic business environment. The book draws upon data from insurer financial statements as well as upon an extensive survey of life insurer management practices and strategic choices in distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources and financial strategies. Generic strategies such as cost leadership, customer focus, and product differentiation are analyzed as well as strategic practices specific to the insurance industry. Best practices are identified by measuring the economic efficiency of insurers and by comparing firms across the industry. Both cost and revenue efficiency are measured relative to best practice efficient frontiers consisting of the industry's dominant life insurance firms. Economies of scale and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on efficiency are also analyzed. Financial strategies are examined with specific reference to pricing policy, valuation of assets and liabilities, and the current state of firm-level risk management systems. The benchmarks established are the result of extensive fieldwork that identifies key financial risks and methodologies to both measure and manage them at the firm level. The results discussed in the book indicate that firm performance is significantly correlated with management practices and strategic choices. Thus, life insurers can improve profitability by adopting optimal combinations of strategies. The book contains important new material on the effects of strategic choices in product distribution systems, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, human resources, and financial risk management policies. In the area of efficiency, the methodology provides a new approach for identifying peer groups of insurers and measuring the performance of individual insurers relative to their peer group. On the topics of risk and pricing, new insights are offered relative to current methodologies and in regard to areas where improvement is clearly warranted. The book concludes with an analysis of the future opportunities and challenges in the life insurance industry facing managers, and the strategic options available to them to cope with these changes.

This new edition of the Handbook of Insurance reviews the last forty years of research developments in insurance and its related fields. A single reference source for professors, researchers, graduate students, regulators, consultants and practitioners, the book starts with the history and foundations of risk and insurance theory, followed by a review of prevention and precaution, asymmetric information, risk management, insurance pricing, new financial innovations, reinsurance, corporate governance, capital allocation, securitization, systemic risk, insurance regulation, the industrial organization of insurance markets and other insurance market applications. It ends with health insurance, longevity risk, long-term care insurance, life insurance financial products and social insurance. This second version of the Handbook contains 15 new chapters. Each of the 37 chapters has been written by leading authorities in risk and insurance research, all contributions have been peer reviewed, and each chapter can be read independently of the others.

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