Does insurance fraud in automobile theft insurance fluctuate with the business cycle?

[[abstract]]Financial institutions face various cyclical risks, but very few studies have analyzed the cyclicality of operational risk. External fraud is an important operational risk faced by insurers. In this research, we analyze the empirical relationship between insurance fraud and business cycle and we concentrate our study on two insurance contracts that may create an incentive to defraud. We find that residual insurance fraud exists both in the contract with replacement cost endorsement and the contract with no-deductible endorsement in the Taiwan automobile theft insurance market. These results are consistent with previous literature on the relationship between fraud activity and non-optimal insurance contracting. We also show that the severity of insurance fraud is countercyclical. Fraud is stimulated during periods of recession and mitigated during periods of expansion. Although this last result seems intuitive, our contribution is the first to measure its significance.[[notice]]補正完畢[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子

A facility upgrade at Texas A&M University for accelerated radioactive beams

The Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University is carrying out an upgrade project which will lead to accelerated radioactive ion beams at intermediate energies. The project involves recommissioning a K150 cyclotron for acceleration of stable beams which will be used to produce radioactive ions. Both light-ion and heavy-ion guides will be used to stop and transport the radioactive ions to a charge breeding electron cyclotron resonance ion source. Following charge breeding, highly-charged ions will be injected into the K500 cyclotron, accelerated and then transported to existing equipment to carry out experiments

RECENT PROGRESS ON THE FACILITY UPGRADE FOR ACCELERATED RADIOACTIVE BEAMS AT TEXAS A&M *

The Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&amp;M University is<br />involved in an upgrade, one goal of which is to provide<br />radioactive ion beams accelerated to intermediate<br />energies by the K500 superconducting cyclotron. The old<br />88&rdquo; cyclotron, now the K150, has been refurbished to be<br />used as a driver and also to provide higher intensity, lowenergy,<br />primary beams for experiments. Two external ion<br />sources, an electron-cyclotron-resonance ion source<br />(ECRIS) and a multi-cusp negative ion source, have been<br />installed on a new axial line to inject beams into a<br />modified K150 central region. Acceleration of negative<br />ions of protons and deuterons with stripping for<br />extraction will be used in order to mitigate activation of<br />the K150. Beams from the K150 will be used to create<br />radioactive species via a light-ion guide and a heavy-ion<br />guide. Singly charged ions from either ion guide will be<br />transported to an ECRIS that is configured to capture<br />these ions and further ionize them. One charge-state from<br />this second ECRIS will be selected for subsequent<br />acceleration by the K500. Progress on the upgrade,<br />including the acceleration and extraction of both negative<br />and positive beams by the K150, is presented

Mean-Reversion in REITs Discount to NAV & Risk Premium

REITs, Net asset value, Property risk premium, REIT volatility,

On the Economic Link Between Asset Prices and Real Activity

This paper presents a model linking two financial markets (stocks and bonds) with real business cycle, in the framework of the Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model with Generalized Isoelastic Preferences. Besides interest rate term spread, the model includes a new variable to forecast economic activity: stock market term spread. This is the slope of expected stock market returns. The empirical evidence documented in this paper suggests systematic relationships between business cycle's state and the shapes of two yield curves (interest rates and expected stock returns). Results are robust to changes in measures of economic growth, stock prices, interest rates and expectations generating mechanisms. Copyright 2006 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.