Business cycles in insurance and reinsurance: the case of France, Germany and Switzerland

Journal of Risk Finance

Volumn 7, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 160-176

  Meier, Ursina B ^a   Francois Outreville J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH   (Switzerland)

^b United Nations Conference on Trade and Development   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Business cycles; France; Germany; Reinsurance; Switzerland; Underwriting

Indexed keywords

EID: 85015608379     PISSN: 15265943     EISSN: 09657967     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/15265940610648607     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Berger, L.A. (1988), “A model for the underwriting cycle in property-liability insurance industry”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 55, pp. 298-306.
2. Berger, L.A., Cummins, J.D. and Tennyson, S. (1992), “Reinsurance and the liability crisis”, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Vol. 5, pp. 253-72.
3. Blazenco, G. (1986), “The economics of reinsurance”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 53, pp. 258-77.
4. Chen, R., Wong, K.A. and Lee, H.C. (1999), “Underwriting cycles in Asia”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 66, pp. 29-47.
5. Cummins, J.D. and Danzon, P. (1997), “Price, financial quality and capital flows in insurance markets”, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 6, pp. 3-38.
6. Cummins, J.D. and Outreville, J.F. (1987), “An international analysis of underwriting cycles”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 54, pp. 246-62.
7. Cummins, J.D. and Weiss, M.A. (2000), “The global market for reinsurance: consolidation, capacity and efficiency”, The Brookings-Wharton Papers on Financial Services, pp. 159-222.
8. Cummins, J.D., Harrington, S.E. and Klein, R.W. (1991), “Cycles and crises in property-casualty insurance: causes and implications for public policy, 1991”, Journal of Insurance Regulation, Fall, pp. 50-93.
9. Dickey, D.A. and Fuller, W.A. (1979), “Distribution of the estimators for autoregressive time series with a unit root”, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 74, June, pp. 427-31.
10. Doherty, N.A. and Garven, J. (1992), “Insurance cycles: interest rates and the capacity constraint model”, Journal of Business, Vol. 68, pp. 383-404.
11. Doherty, N.A. and Kang, H.B. (1988), “Interest rates and insurance price cycles”, Journal of Banking and Finance, Vol. 12, pp. 199-214.
12. Doherty, N.A. and Tinic, S.M. (1981), “Reinsurance under conditions of capital market equilibrium”, Journal of Finance, Vol. 36, pp. 949-52.
13. Enz, R. (2002), The Insurance Cycle as an Entrepreneurial Challenge, Swiss Re Reinsurance Company, Zurich.
14. Fields, J.A. and Venezian, E.C. (1989), “Interest rates and profit cycles: a disaggregated approach”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 312-19.
15. Froot, K. and O'Connell, P. (1997), “The Pricing of U.S. Catastrophe Reinsurance”, working paper No. 6043, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
16. Fung, H.-G., Lai, G.C., Patterson, G.C. and Witt, R.C. (1998), “Underwriting cycles in property and liability insurance: an empirical analysis of industry and by-line data”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 65 No. 4, pp. 539-62.
17. Garven, J.R. (1987), “On the application of finance theory to the insurance firm”, Journal of Financial Services Research, Vol. 1, pp. 57-76.
18. Garven, J.R. and Loubergé, H. (1996), “Reinsurance, taxes and efficiency: a contingent claims model of insurance market equilibrium”, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 5, pp. 74-93.
19. Grace, M.F. and Hotchkiss, J.L. (1995), “External impacts on property-liability insurance cycle”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 62, pp. 738-54.
20. Gron, A. (1990), “Property-casualty insurance cycles, capacity constraints and empirical tests”, PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA.
21. Gron, A. (1994a), “Capacity constraints and cycles in property-casualty insurance markets”, Rand Journal of Economics, Vol. 25, Spring, pp. 110-27.
22. Gron, A. (1994b), “Evidence of capacity constraints in insurance markets”, Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 37, October, pp. 349-77.
23. Haley, J.D. (1993), “A cointegration analysis of the relationship between underwriting margins and interest rates: 1930-1989”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 60 No. 3, pp. 480-93.
24. Harrington, S.E. (1984), “The impact of rate regulation on prices and underwriting results in the property-liability insurance industry”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 51, pp. 577-623.
25. Harrington, S.E. and Danzon, P.M. (1994), “Price cutting in liability insurance markets”, Journal of Business, Vol. 67, pp. 511-38.
26. Harrington, S.E. and Niehaus, G. (2000), “Volatility and underwriting cycles”, in Dionne, G. (Ed.), Handbook of Insurance, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA.
27. Harrington, S.E. and Yu, T. (2003), “Do property-casualty insurance underwriting margins have unit roots?”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 70 No. 4, pp. 735-53.
28. Lamm-Tennant, J. and Weiss, M.A. (1997), “International insurance cycles: rational expectations/institutional intervention”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 64, pp. 415-39.
29. Leng, C.-C. and Meier, U.B. (2002), “Analysis of multi-national underwriting cycles in property-liability insurance”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Risk and Insurance Association in Montreal and at the EGRIE Meeting, Nottingham.
30. Leng, C.-C. and Venezian, E. (2003), “Underwriting profits: are the data consistent with rationally priced insurance cycles?”, Insurance and Risk Management, Vol. 71 No. 3, pp. 435-54.
31. Mayers, D. and Smith, C.W. (1982), “On the corporate demand for insurance”, Journal of Business, Vol. 55, pp. 281-96.
32. Mayers, D. and Smith, C.W. (1990), “On the corporate demand for insurance: evidence from the reinsurance market”, Journal of Business, Vol. 63, pp. 19-40.
33. Niehaus, G. and Terry, A. (1993), “Evidence on the time series properties of insurance premiums and causes of the underwriting cycle”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 60, pp. 466-79.
34. Outreville, J.F. (1981), “Les opérations des compagnies d'assurances IARD: identification de modèles et simulation d'hypothèses de conjoncture économique”, Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Vol. 6, October, pp. 34-50.
35. Outreville, J.F. (1990), “Underwriting cycles and rate regulation in automobile insurance markets”, Journal of Insurance Regulation, Vol. 8, pp. 274-86.
36. Outreville, J.F. (1995), “Reinsurance in developing countries”, Journal of Reinsurance, Vol. 2, spring, pp. 42-51.
37. Radach, F.R. (1988), “A strategy for cycle management”, Best's Review, June, pp. 48-50.
38. Smith, M.L. (1984), “Property-liability insurance markets, taxation and interest rates”, Proceedings, International Insurance Seminar, New Orleans, LA.
39. Smith, M.L. (1989), “Investment returns and yields to holders of insurance”, Journal of Business, Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 81-98.
40. Stewart, B.D. (1984), “Profit cycles in property-liability insurance”, in Long, J.D. (Ed.), Issues in Insurance, American Institute for P/L Underwriters, Malvern, PA.
41. Tennyson, S. (1991), “The effect of rate regulation on underwriting cycles”, CPCU Journal, Vol. 44, pp. 33-45.
42. Tennyson, S. (1993), “Regulatory lag in automobile insurance”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 63, pp. 36-58.
43. Venezian, E. (1985), “Ratemaking methods and profit cycles in property and liability insurance”, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 52, pp. 477-500.
44. Venezian, E. (2002), “Empirical analysis on the underwriting cycle: an evaluation”, Insurance and Risk Management, Vol. 70, July, pp. 295-314.
45. Webb, B.L. (1992), Insurance Investment Management Handbook, The Property and Liability Insurance Industry.
46. Wilson, W.C. (1981), “The underwriting cycle and investment income”, CPCU Journal, Vol. 34, pp. 225-32.
47. Winter, R.A. (1988), “The liability crisis and the dynamics of competitive insurance markets”, Yale Journal of Regulation, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 455-99.
48. Winter, R.A. (1991), “Solvency regulation and the property-liability insurance cycle”, Economic Inquiry, Vol. 29, pp. 458-71.
49. Winter, R.A. (1994), “The dynamics of competitive insurance markets”, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 3, pp. 379-415.
50. Witt, R.C. and Miller, H. (1981), “Price competition, regulation and systematic underwriting risk in automobile insurance markets”, CPCU Journal, Vol. 34, pp. 174-89.
51. Witt, R.C. and Urrutia, J. (1983), “Price competition, regulation and systematic risk in automobile insurance”, Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Vol. 8, pp. 403-29.