Why do some insurers become systemically relevant?

Gregor N.F. Weiß and Janina Mühlnickel

Journal of Financial Stability, 2014, vol. 13, issue C, 95-117

Abstract: Are some insurers relevant for the stability of the financial system? And if yes, what firm fundamentals and aspects of insurers’ business models cause them to destabilize an entire financial sector? We find that several insurers did indeed contribute significantly to the instability of the U.S. financial sector during the recent financial crisis. We empirically confirm that insurers that were most exposed to systemic risk were on average larger, relied more heavily on non-policyholder liabilities and had higher ratios of investment income to net revenues. Contrary to current conjectures of insurance regulators, we find that the contribution of insurers to systemic risk is only driven by insurer size.

Keywords: Financial crises; Insurance industry; Systemic risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G01 G22 G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finsta:v:13:y:2014:i:c:p:95-117

DOI: 10.1016/j.jfs.2014.05.001

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