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Financial Risk Management in the Insurance Industry

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Abstract

This chapter has two objectives. The first objective is to survey the finance literature on corporate hedging and financial risk management with an emphasis on how the general literature applies in insurance. We begin by reviewing the theoretical rationales for widely-held, risk-neutral, profit-maximizing firms to practice risk management and then go on to discuss the empirical literature on corporate hedging. The second objective is to develop a theoretical model to provide a new explanation for why widely-held insurers manage risk. Insurers are hypothesized to invest in multiple period, private assets where the payoffs are not fully realized if the assets have to be liquidated prior to their expiration. Avoiding adverse shocks to capital that would trigger a liquidation provides the motivation for risk management in our model.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania, USA

    J. David Cummins

  2. Georgia State University, USA

    Richard D. Phillips

  3. Georgia State University and Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, USA

    Stephen D. Smith

Authors
  1. J. David Cummins
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  2. Richard D. Phillips
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  3. Stephen D. Smith
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. HEC-Montréal, Canada

    Georges Dionne (Risk Management Chair) (Risk Management Chair)

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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Cummins, J.D., Phillips, R.D., Smith, S.D. (2000). Financial Risk Management in the Insurance Industry. In: Dionne, G. (eds) Handbook of Insurance. Huebner International Series on Risk, Insurance, and Economic Security, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0642-2_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0642-2_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-7911-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0642-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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