Organizational Form and Insurance Company Performance: Stocks versus Mutuals

Patricia Born, William Gentry (), W Kip Viscusi and Richard Zeckhauser ()

No 5246, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: One unusual feature of the U.S. property-casualty insurance industry is the coexistence of stock and mutual companies. This paper explores the performance of these forms in the industry through a dynamic assessment of how mutual and stock insurance companies respond to differences in their underwriting environment. Agency theories suggest that the stock company may be more 'opportunistic' and less obligated to their insureds than mutuals. This article assesses the responses by stock and mutual firms to changes in the underwriting environment from 1984 to 1991, using measures of individual firms' performance, by state and by line, in eight different lines of insurance. Stock companies are more likely than mutuals to reduce their business in unprofitable situations, and have higher losses than mutuals for a given amount of premiums.

Date: 1995-09
Note: CF IO
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Published relationship to a non-chapter. This should not happen. Please contact NBER.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5246.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

Related works:
Chapter: Organizational Form and Insurance Company Performance: Stocks versus Mutuals (1998)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5246

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w5246
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc
Address: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().