"Cy devant soldat -- après habitant" : the setlling of the Carignan-Salières Regiment in New France

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 201

Efficiency of Insurance Firms with Endogenous Risk Management and Financial Intermediation Activities

Risk management is now present in many economic sectors. This paper investigates the role of risk management in creating value for financial institutions by analyzing U.S. property-liability insurers. Property-liability insurers are financial intermediaries whose primary roles in the economy are risk pooling and risk bearing. The risk pooling and risk bearing functions performed by insurers are the primary determinants of the need for risk management. The main goal of this paper is to test how risk management and financial intermediation activities create value for insurers by enhancing economic efficiency. Insurer cost efficiency is measured relative to an econometric cost function. Since the prices of risk management and financial intermediation services are not observable, we consider these two activities as intermediate outputs and estimate their shadow prices. The shadow prices isolate the contributions of risk management and financial intermediation to insurer cost efficiency. The econometric results show that both activities significantly increase the efficiency of the property-liability insurance industry.Risk management, US property-liability insurer, risk pooling, financial intermediation, economic efficiency, intermediate output, shadow price, cost function, translog approximation

The Costs and Benefits of Reinsurance

Purchasing reinsurance reduces insurers’ insolvency risk by stabilizing loss experience, increasing capacity, limiting liability on specific risks, and/or protecting against catastrophes. Consequently, reinsurance purchase should reduce capital costs. However, transferring risk to reinsurers is expensive. The cost of reinsurance for an insurer can be much larger than the actuarial price of the risk transferred. In this article, we analyze empirically the costs and the benefits of reinsurance for a sample of U.S. property-liability insurers. The results show that reinsurance purchase increases significantly the insurers’ costs but reduces significantly the volatility of the loss ratio. With purchasing reinsurance, insurers accept to pay higher costs of insurance production to reduce their underwriting risk.reinsurance, insolvency risk, risk management, financial intermediation, cost functions, panel data.

Efficiency of Insurance Firms with Endogenous Risk Management and Financial Intermediation Activities

Risk management is now present in many economic sectors. This paper investigates the role of risk management in creating value for financial institutions by analyzing U.S. property-liability insurers. Property-liability insurers are financial intermediaries whose primary role in the economy is risk pooling and risk bearing. The risk pooling and risk bearing functions performed by insurers are the primary determinants of the need for risk management. The main goal of this paper is to test how risk management and financial intermediation activities create value for insurers by enhancing economic efficiency. Insurer cost efficiency is measured relative to an econometric cost frontier. Since the prices of risk management and financial intermediation services are not observable, we consider these two activities as intermediate outputs and estimate their shadow prices. The shadow prices isolate the contributions of risk management and financial intermediation to insurer cost efficiency. The econometric results show that both activities significantly increase the efficiency of the property-liability insurance industry.

Socio‐economic distribution of e‐cigarette use among recent former regular smokers and current smokers at ages 25–26 in England

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: E-cigarettes may potentially help young adult smokers quit smoking, yet little is known about differences across socioeconomic groups. We examined associations between key socioeconomic characteristics and e-cigarette use among recent former smokers and current smokers in a sample of young adults in England. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND MEASUREMENTS: We used data on 346 recent former regular (daily for 12+ months) smokers and 1,913 current smokers from the ages 25-26 wave of the Next Steps cohort study (2015-2016). In multinomial logistic regression, we estimated relative risk ratios (RRR) of e-cigarette use (never, former, non-daily, daily) by educational attainment, social class (using the National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC)), and employment status (full-time, part-time, unemployed and other 'inactivity' (e.g., stay at home parents and permanantly disabled)), adjusting for sex. FINDINGS: Among recent former regular smokers, there were no patterns of association between socioeconomic characteristics and e-cigarette use. Among current smokers: 1) compared with higher occupation (NS-SEC I/II), intermediate occupation (NS-SEC III/IV) was positively associated with non-daily e-cigarette use (RRR = 1.77, 95%CI 1.03-3.03); 2) compared with full-time employment, unemployment was negatively associated with non-daily and daily e-cigarette use (RRR = 0.38, 95%CI 0.18-0.81; RRR = 0.12, 95%CI 0.02-0.56), and other economic inactivity was negatively associated with daily e-cigarette use (RRR = 0.39, 95%CI 0.16-0.93). CONCLUSIONS: Among young adult smokers in England, lower status occupational groups were more likely to use e-cigarettes on a non-daily basis than to have never used compared with higher status occupational groups. Compared with people in full-time employment, those without employment were less likely to use e-cigarettes daily than to have never used

The Rondani Cecidomyiidae (Diptera)

The Rondani collection of Cecidomyiidae in Florence, Italy, is cataloged to account for existing specimens of Rondani species. Areport is made on the status and identity of each of Rondani's 16 species of Cecidomyiidae. Types of 12 species are represented by specimens in good to poor condition; those of the remaining four species cannot be found. Alectotypeis designated for Brachincura fuscogrisca and illustrations are given of its male genitalia and part of its antenna. Recommendations are made for future fixation of lectotypes or neotypes of some of Rondani's species

Testing a continuum structure of self-determined motivation: A meta-analysis

Self-determination theory proposes a multidimensional representation of motivation comprised of several factors said to fall along a continuum of relative autonomy. The current meta-analysis examined the relationships between these motivation factors in order to demonstrate how reliably they conformed to a predictable continuum-like pattern. Based on data from 486 samples representing over 205,000 participants who completed 1 of 13 validated motivation scales, the results largely supported a continuum-like structure of motivation and indicate that self-determination is central in explaining human motivation. Further examination of heterogeneity indicated that while regulations were predictably ordered across domains and scales, the exact distance between subscales varied across samples in a way that was not explainable by a set of moderators. Results did not support the inclusion of integrated regulation or the 3 subscales of intrinsic motivation (i.e., intrinsic motivation to know, to experience stimulation, and to achieve) due to excessively high interfactor correlations and overlapping confidence intervals. Recommendations for scale refinements and the scoring of motivation are provided

1947 Correspondence Between Lewiston Teachers Association and Louis-Philippe Gagné

Two letters of correspondence between Mary J. Hamilton, President of the Lewiston Teachers\u27 Association and Louis-Philippe Gagné. Letter 1: Letter from Mary J. Hamilton to Louis-Philippe Gagné inviting him and his wife to the Lewiston Teachers\u27 Association annual dinner. The letter is dated May 15, 1947. Letter 2: Louis-Philippe Gagné\u27s response to Mary J. Hamilton regarding the Lewiston Teachers\u27 Association annual dinner. The letter is dated May 20, 1947.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-lpg-1947-04-06/1010/thumbnail.jp