Regulations and soundness of insurance firms: International evidence

Fotios Pasiouras and Chrysovalantis Gaganis ()

Journal of Business Research, 2013, vol. 66, issue 5, 632-642

Abstract: This paper provides the first cross-country study on the association between firms' soundness and regulatory policies in the insurance industry. Measuring solvency with an accounting based measure of distance to default, namely the Z-score, we find that the power of the supervisory authorities, and regulations related to both technical provisions and investments have an impact on soundness that is robust to controls for firm-specific and country-specific factors. In contrast, corporate governance and internal control rules do not influence soundness. Similarly, capital requirements do not appear to have a robust impact on soundness.

Keywords: Insurance; Regulations; Solvency; Soundness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:66:y:2013:i:5:p:632-642

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.09.023

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