Abstract
This research investigates the relationship between capital and risk in property-liability insurers from 1993 to 2007. Three-stage least squares estimation is used to investigate the relationship between capital and two types of risk: underwriting and asset risk. Overall the results suggest that risk and capital are positively related, so that capital increases are associated with increases in investment and underwriting risk. This positive relationship was not consistently significant in 1993, prior to the implementation of risk-based capital (RBC) requirements. Both under-capitalised insurers and marginally adequately capitalised insurers adjusted their capital and risk towards firm targets at a higher speed than well-capitalised insurers in the post-RBC period. But underwriting and asset risk also increased for less well-capitalised insurers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 274-307 |
| Number of pages | 34 |
| Journal | The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance : Issues and Practice |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 8 Apr 2013 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Jiang Cheng gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars (Grant #2012940) and the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (New Teachers Grant #Z1025420) of the Ministry of Education of China.
Keywords
- capital
- regulatory effect
- risk
- risk-based capital