Marginal prices of improvements made to blocks of flats: empirical evidence from Romania

This paper examines a specific segment of the housing markets from Central and Eastern European countries, namely the stock of flats in the urban area. With focus on Romania, we emphasize the improvements made by owners and authorities, aimed to enhance the quality of life and the maintenance of old blocks of flats; are highlighted some aspects regarding the cost of these improvements. In addition, the empirical section investigates whether and to what extent the improvements made to the flats and buildings have a significant effect on sale prices and rental prices. The marginal prices of these attributes are provided by hedonic pricing models, estimated in a generalized linear model framework; gamma and log-linear regression models perform in a similar way in terms of fit and prediction accuracy. The physical condition of the building and finishing works inside the flats, as variables of interest in our models, have a significant effect on sale and rental prices, but with different intensity. A common set of significant attributes, in the hedonic models for both sale and rental price, is suggested

Multivariate Analysis of Premium Dynamics in P&L Insurance

This article studies the dynamic relationship between premiums and losses on the U.S. property–casualty insurance market, accounting for the external impacts of GDP and interest rate. Compared to the existing literature, the present work innovates in that the dynamic relationships between premiums, losses, GDP, and interest rate are studied in a cointegration framework, single-equation and vector approach, involving the long- and shortrun dynamics. The results suggest a stable long-run equilibrium between premiums, losses, and general economy. On short term, the premiums adjust quickly and significantly to the long-term disequilibrium and have a strong autoregressive behavior. External factors contribute to explain the dynamics of premiums

A multivariate time series approach to projected life tables

The method of mortality forecasting proposed by Lee and Carter describes a time series of age-specific log-death rates as a sum of an independent of time age-specific component and a bilinear term in which one of the component is a time-varying factor reflecting general change in mortality and the second one is an age-specific parameter. Such a rigid model structure implies that on average the mortality improvements for different age groups should be proportional, regardless of the calendar period: a single time factor drives the future death rates. This paper investigates the use Of multivariate time series techniques for forecasting age-specific death rates. This approach allows for relative speed of decline in the log death rates specific to the different ages. The dynamic factor analysis and the Johansen cointegration methodology Lire Successfully applied to project mortality. The inclusion of several time factors allows the model to capture the imperfect correlations in death rates from I year to the next. The benchmark Lee-Carter model appears as a special case of these approaches. An empirical study is conducted with the help of the Johansen cointegration methodology. A vector-error correction model is fitted to Belgian general population death rates. A comparison is performed with the forecast of life expectancies obtained from the classical Lee-Carter model. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

New evidence for underwriting cycles in US property-liability insurance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight some testing procedures, both in time/frequency framework, useful to test for significant cycles in insurance data. The US underwriting cycle is measured using the growth rates of real premiums. Design/methodology/approach – In addition to the traditional AR(2) model, two new approaches are suggested: testing for a significant peak in the periodogram using Fisher g test and a nonparametric version of it, and testing for unit root cycles in insurance data. Findings – All approaches find empirical evidence for a cyclical behaviour of the growth rates of property-liability real premiums. Results on the length of dominant cycle still diverge, according to the approach (time/frequency domain). Originality/value – Compared to the existing literature, the present study innovates in that it highlights additional testing procedures, helpful to detect significant cycles in insurance time series. The underwriting cycle is analysed through the growth rates of real premiums

New evidence for underwriting cycles in US property-liability insurance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight some testing procedures, both in time/frequency framework, useful to test for significant cycles in insurance data. The US underwriting cycle is measured using the growth rates of real premiums. Design/methodology/approach – In addition to the traditional AR(2) model, two new approaches are suggested: testing for a significant peak in the periodogram using Fisher g test and a nonparametric version of it, and testing for unit root cycles in insurance data. Findings – All approaches find empirical evidence for a cyclical behaviour of the growth rates of property-liability real premiums. Results on the length of dominant cycle still diverge, according to the approach (time/frequency domain). Originality/value – Compared to the existing literature, the present study innovates in that it highlights additional testing procedures, helpful to detect significant cycles in insurance time series. The underwriting cycle is analysed through the growth rates of real premiums.Insurance, Insurance premiums, Spectral analysis, Time domain, Time series analysis, Underwriting cycle, United States of America

The Solvency II square-root formula for systematic biometric risk

In this paper, we develop a model supporting the so-called square-root formula used in Solvency II to aggregate the modular life SCR. Describing the insurance policy by a Markov jump process, we can obtain expressions similar to the square-root formula in Solvency II by means of limited expansions around the best estimate. Numerical illustrations are given, based on German population data. Even if the square-root formula can be supported by theoretical considerations, it is shown that the QIS correlation matrix is highly questionabl

Clinical Effects of Locally Delivered <i>Lactobacillus reuteri</i> as Adjunctive Therapy in Patients with Periodontitis: A Split-Mouth Study

Different methods and products have been investigated as measures of adjunctive therapy to scaling and root planing (SRP). Probiotic use has gained interest for this particular application, especially Lactobacillus spp. This split-mouth interventional prospective study aimed to evaluate the clinical effects of L. reuteri DSM 17938 with local application in periodontal pockets of severe periodontitis patients. The study was conducted on 40 subjects with stage 3–4 periodontitis who, based on a split-mouth model, followed SRP and SRP + L. reuteri solution in five weekly sessions. Probing depth (PD), clinical attachment loss (CAL), and bleeding on probing (BOP) were assessed at baseline and at three months after probiotic treatment completion. Both SRP and SRP + L. reuteri generated significant improvements of all three clinical parameters, but the changes were significantly better for SRP + L. reuteri treated sites. Therefore, we can conclude that adjunctive therapy with L. reuteri DSM 17938 could represent an interesting treatment option, particularly for severe periodontitis cases

Clinical Effects of Locally Delivered Lactobacillus reuteri as Adjunctive Therapy in Patients with Periodontitis: A Split-Mouth Study

Different methods and products have been investigated as measures of adjunctive therapy to scaling and root planing (SRP). Probiotic use has gained interest for this particular application, especially Lactobacillus spp. This split-mouth interventional prospective study aimed to evaluate the clinical effects of L. reuteri DSM 17938 with local application in periodontal pockets of severe periodontitis patients. The study was conducted on 40 subjects with stage 3&ndash;4 periodontitis who, based on a split-mouth model, followed SRP and SRP + L. reuteri solution in five weekly sessions. Probing depth (PD), clinical attachment loss (CAL), and bleeding on probing (BOP) were assessed at baseline and at three months after probiotic treatment completion. Both SRP and SRP + L. reuteri generated significant improvements of all three clinical parameters, but the changes were significantly better for SRP + L. reuteri treated sites. Therefore, we can conclude that adjunctive therapy with L. reuteri DSM 17938 could represent an interesting treatment option, particularly for severe periodontitis cases