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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on how a firm's size is related to risk taking of Malaysia's insurance companies, from 2000-2010. Design/methodology/approach – The sample used for empirical testing in this study comprised direct insurance firms licensed under Malaysia's Insurance Act 1996, for the time frame between 2000 and 2010. Pearson's correlation, fixed and random effects models, and the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method were used in this study. Findings – Both the fixed effects and the system GMM panel data regression models suggested a positive link between the insurance firm size and underwriting risk. For the robustness test, the results of the analysis using changes in data broadly resemble the outputs of the levels estimation. Research limitations/implications – The sample of this study is limited to Malaysia's insurance sector only. Originality/value – Advocates of the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) theory believe that government support and the guarantee of a financial bailout are warranted for large financial institutions facing crises, for the main purpose of avoiding disruptions within a country's economy. The drawback, however, may be that the TBTF doctrine is the culprit behind excessive risk taking by insurance firms of large proportions. A number of regulatory concerns have been raised and addressed from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between risk management committee characteristics and risk taking of the Malaysia's insurance companies, from 2003-2011. The paper aims to examine three identified characteristics of a risk management committee, namely, size, independence, and number of meetings. Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprises 329 observations throughout the nine years' time frame until 2011. Pearson's correlation, pooled ordinary least squares regression, and panel regression model are used in this study. Sensitivity testing with an alternative measure of underwriting risk is also performed. Findings – Out of the three characteristics, size and committee independence appear to be negatively associated with underwriting risk. Meanwhile, the frequency of risk management committee meetings is insignificant in this study. Research limitations/implications – The sample of this study is limited to the Malaysia's insurance sector only. Originality/value – A risk management committee is an influencing force for risk oversight and the internal control system. The empirical evidence enriches the understanding of corporate governance in the context of the role of a risk management committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the mean reversion behaviour of three Japanese real exchange rates during January 1980-January 2010. The CPI- and PPI-based real yen/USD rates and real effective yen rates are examined using newly improved unit root tests allowing for endogenous break(s) in the linear and non-linear manner. We identify structural breaks in 1985 and 1997/98, respectively, via the linear tests from Zivot and Andrews (1992) and Lumsdaine and Papell (1997), but the results were mostly against the PPP hypothesis. The test from Saikkonen and Lütkepohl (2002), however, provides sufficient support for the non-linear adjustment of real exchange rates towards long-run PPP (purchasing power parity), which suggests the goods market integration between the two nations. The exchange rate misalignment is somewhat less evident after the Plaza Accord 1985, and stronger evidence for PPP is found in the post-1999 period. This is supported by a smaller persistency of real exchange (half-life < a year) found in sub-sample analysis. In brief, our findings reveal that the Japanese authorities have implemented a PPP-oriented rule as a basis for their exchange rate policies in the presence of structural break(s) and non-linearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]