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The purpose of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the determinants of economic performances in the insurance industry. To this end, we test the impact of several firm characteristics, such as dimension, capital structure and investment policies on economic performance for a panel of non-life insurance firms operating in the main European markets spanning from 2004 to 2012. Empirical findings suggest that various factors contribute to the performance measured by return on equity and return on asset and, additionally, the insurance specific characteristics interact with country institutional features in determining profitability. In particular, the profitability of equity appears to be strongly linked to the profitability of assets, which is therefore investigated separately. The three main areas that constitute the core insurance activity (insurance in its narrower sense, financial and reinsurance activities) strongly influence profitability, but reinsurance does not seem to contribute either positively or negatively to performance. Further investigations are needed and welcome, therefore, to better understand the dynamics of performance and shed additional insight on the insurance industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to study the stock market reaction to sporting results of European listed football clubs. Specifically, it tries to examine the impact of the sporting results on the stock market valuation in terms of abnormal returns and trading volume around the dates of matches. Design/methodology/approach - This paper undertakes an event study around the dates of 745 matches played by European listed football clubs. Findings - The empirical analysis shows that the sporting results of listed football clubs affect both the abnormal returns and the trading volume around the dates of matches. The movement (positive or negative) and the time when the impact occurs (before or after the match) differ according to the nature of the result (defeat, draw or win) and the match venue (home or away). Findings in this study imply that the success of investments in listed football clubs requires a regular follow-up of their sporting performances. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first to take into consideration the nature of sporting results (defeat, draw or win) according to the match venue (home or away) in order to study the market reaction in terms of both abnormal returns and trading volume. Unlike some previous studies, it is not limited to studying a single specific context but considers listed football clubs from all over Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]