The role of deposit insurance and bank’s asset size in the 2008 financial crisis

In this paper we analyze the role of deposit insurance in providing the market with liquidity in times of financial turmoil. To do so, we look at the variation in insured and uninsured deposits between 2005Q3 and 2011Q3, controlling for liquidity, solvency and capital adequacy indicators, and find evidence that deposit insurance does provide some confidence in keeping funds in banks in times of turmoil. Additionally we follow an event study methodology to assess the impact of deposit insurance oriented policies on bank holding companies stock market returns, and find a TBTF effect.

Electromyography function, disability degree, and pain in leprosy patients undergoing neural mobilization treatment

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the neural mobilization technique on electromyography function, disability degree, and pain in patients with leprosy. METHODS: A sample of 56 individuals with leprosy was randomized into an experimental group, composed of 29 individuals undergoing treatment with neural mobilization, and a control group of 27 individuals who underwent conventional treatment. In both groups, the lesions in the lower limbs were treated. In the treatment with neural mobilization, the procedure used was mobilization of the lumbosacral roots and sciatic nerve biased to the peroneal nerve that innervates the anterior tibial muscle, which was evaluated in the electromyography. RESULTS: Analysis of the electromyography function showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in the experimental group in both the right (Δ%=22.1, p=0.013) and the left anterior tibial muscles (Δ%=27.7, p=0.009), compared with the control group pre- and post-test. Analysis of the strength both in the movement of horizontal extension (Δ%right=11.7, p=0.003/Δ%left=27.4, p=0.002) and in the movement of back flexion (Δ%right=31.1; p=0.000/Δ%left=34.7, p=0.000) showed a significant increase (p<0.05) in both the right and the left segments when comparing the experimental group pre- and post-test. The experimental group showed a significant reduction (p=0.000) in pain perception and disability degree when the pre- and post-test were compared and when compared with the control group in the post-test. CONCLUSIONS: Leprosy patients undergoing the technique of neural mobilization had an improvement in electromyography function and muscle strength, reducing disability degree and pain.

Statistics as a basis for discrimination in the insurance business

The European Court of Justice has held that as from 21 December 2012 insurers may no longer charge men and women differently on the basis of scientific evidence that is statistically linked to their sex, effectively prohibiting the use of sex as a factor in the calculation of premiums and benefits for the purposes of insurance and related financial services throughout the European Union. This ruling marks a sharp turn away from the traditional view that insurers should be allowed to apply just about any risk assessment criterion, so long as it is sustained by the findings of actuarial science. The naïveté behind the assumption that insurers’ recourse to statistical data and probabilistic analysis, given their scientific nature, would suffice to keep them out of harm’s way was exposed. In this article I look at the flaws of this assumption and question whether this judicial decision, whilst constituting a most welcome landmark in the pursuit of equality between men and women, has nonetheless gone too far by saying too little on the million dollar question of what separates admissible criteria of differentiation from inadmissible forms of discrimination.

Degree of disability, pain levels, muscle strength, and electromyographic function in patients with Hansen's disease with common peroneal nerve damage

INTRODUCTION: This study evaluated the degree of disability, pain levels, muscle strength, and electromyographic function (RMS) in individuals with leprosy. METHODS: We assessed 29 individuals with leprosy showing common peroneal nerve damage and grade 1 or 2 disability who were referred for physiotherapeutic treatment, as well as a control group of 19 healthy participants without leprosy. All subjects underwent analyses of degree of disability, electromyographic tests, voluntary muscle force, and the Visual Analog Pain Scale. RESULTS: McNemar's test found higher levels of grade 2 of disability (Δ = 75.9%; p = 0.0001) among individuals with leprosy. The Mann-Whitney test showed greater pain levels (Δ = 5.0; p = 0.0001) in patients with leprosy who had less extension strength in the right and left extensor hallucis longus muscles (Δ = 1.28, p = 0.0001; Δ = 1.55, p = 0.0001, respectively) and dorsiflexion of the right and left feet (Δ = 1.24, p = 0.0001; Δ = 1.45, p = 0.0001, respectively) than control subjects. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the RMS score for dorsiflexion of the right (Δ = 181.66 m·s-2, p = 0.001) and left (Δ = 102.57m·s-2, p = 0.002) feet was lower in patients with leprosy than in control subjects, but intragroup comparisons showed no difference. CONCLUSIONS: Leprosy had a negative influence on all of the study variables, indicating the need for immediate physiotherapeutic intervention in individuals with leprosy. This investigation opens perspectives for future studies that analyze leprosy treatment with physical therapeutic intervention.

Managing marginal capital requirements in solvency II: Analysis of a real insurance portfolio

This thesis provides a complete analysis of the Standard Capital Requirements given by Solvency II for a real insurance portfolio. We analyze the investment portfolio of BPI Vida e Pensões, an insurance company affiliated with a Portuguese bank BPI, both at security, sub-portfolio and asset class levels. By using the Standard Formula from EIOPA, Total SCR amounts to 239M€. This value is mostly explained by Market and Default Risk whereas the former is driven by Spread and Concentration Risks. Following the methodology of Leblanc (2011), we examine the Marginal Contribution of an asset to the SCR which allows for the evaluation of the risks of each security given its characteristics and interactions in the portfolio. The top contributors to the SCR are Corporate Bonds and Term Deposits. By exploring further the composition of the portfolio, our results show that slight changes in allocation of Term and Cash Deposits have severe impacts on the total Concentration and Default Risks, respectively. Also, diversification effects are very relevant by representing savings of 122M€. Finally, Solvency II represents an opportunity for the portfolio optimization. By constructing efficient frontiers, we find that as the target expected return increases, a shift from Term Deposits/ Commercial Papers to Eurozone/Peripheral and finally Equities occurs.

Supplementary private health insurance: The characteristics of subscribers

Despite the fact that public medical care has being heavily subsidized through a statutory national health system there has been a growing number of people who opt to enroll in extra private coverage. Using a two part model to infer the insurance decision and subsequent amount of insurance chosen we found out that people’s decision over private health coverage is not related with their health. The pattern of consumption of medical care that is not available in the public sector and a good socio economic background were found significant modeling the demand for private health insurance.

Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a tool for analysis of the effect of physical therapy on spasticity in HAM/TSP patients

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate spasticity in human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients before and after physical therapy using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). METHODS: Nine subjects underwent physical therapy. Spasticity was evaluated using the Modified Ashworth Scale. The obtained scores were converted into ICF body functions scores. RESULTS: The majority of subjects had a high degree of spasticity in the quadriceps muscles. According to the ICF codes, the spasticity decreased after 20 sessions of physical therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The ICF was effective in evaluating spasticity in HAM/TSP patients.

What Fidelidade group should do to convey its human centric brand identity values to millennial insurance consumers

Companies are concerned in attracting and retaining Millennial consumers, especially if their relation with this target audience is weak. This happens in the insurance industry in Portugal and in Fidelidade group specifically. The aim of this study is to recommend a strategy for the insurance group to improve its relationship with these consumers, by conveying its human centric values. In order to address this goal, we developed a qualitative research. The main insight is that Millennials may perceive those values in the industry but do not associate them with insurance brands.

Seguros Income Protection: análise segundo o sexo e a classe profissional dos segurados

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Monetária, Bancária e Financeira

Seguros Income Protection com um período máximo de recebimento de benefícios

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Monetária, Bancária e Financeira

Death and Disability in Patients with Sleep Apnea - A Meta-analysis

Background:Several studies have been attempting to ascertain the risks of Sleep Apnea Syndrome (SAS) and its morbidity and mortality.Objective:The main objective was to verify whether SAS increases the risk of death; the secondary objective was to evaluate its morbidity in relation to cardiovascular disease and the number of days hospitalized.Methods:A systematic review and a meta-analysis were performed of the published literature. The research focused on studies comparing the number of deaths in patients with untreated SAS and in patients with non-SAS.Results:The meta-analysis was based on 13 articles, corresponding to a total of 13394 participants divided into two groups (non-SAS = 6631; SAS = 6763). The meta-analysis revealed a clear association of SAS with the occurrence of fatal events, where the presence of SAS corresponded to a 61% higher risk of total mortality (OR=1.61; CI: 1.43 - 1.81; p < 0.00001), while the risk of death from cardiac causes was 2.52 times higher in these patients (OR = 2.52; IC: 1.80 - 3.52; p < 0.00001). Similar results were obtained for mortality from other causes (OR = 1.68; CI: 1.08 - 2.61; p = 0.02). Resembling results were obtained in the remaining outcomes: non-fatal cardiovascular events were higher in the SAS group (OR = 2.46; IC: 1.80 - 3.36; p < 0.00001), the average number of days hospitalized was also higher in the SAS group (IV = 18.09; IC: 13.34 - 22.84; p < 0.00001).Conclusion:The results show that untreated SAS significantly increases the risk of death, cardiovascular events and the average number of days hospitalized.

Evaluación de fondos de inversión garantizados por medio de portfolio insurance

La elaboración de un índice de performance para la evaluación de carteras de inversión tiene como base la correcta definición de la medida de riesgo a emplear. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo proponer una medida de performance adecuada a la evaluación de carteras de fondos de inversión garantizados. Las particularidades de este tipo de fondos hacen necesario definir una medida explicativa de las características especificas de riesgo de este tipo de carteras. Partiendo de la estrategia de porfolio insurance se define una nueva medida de riesgo basada en el downside risk. Proponemos como medida de downside risk aquella parte del riesgo total de una cartera de títulos que se elimina con la estrategia de portfolio insurance. Por contraposición, proponemos como medida de upside risk aquella otra parte del riesgo total de la cartera que no desaparece con la estrategia de portfolio insurance. De este modo, la suma del upside risk y del downside risk es el riesgo total. Partiendo de la medida de riesgo upside risk y del modelo de valoración de activos C.A.P.M. se propone una medida de performance específica para evaluar los fondos de inversión garantizados.

Fiscal insurance and debt management in OECD economies

Assuming the role of debt management is to provide hedging against fiscal shocks we consider three questions: i) what indicators can be used to assess the performance of debt management? ii) how well have historical debt management policies performed? and iii) how is that performance affected by variations in debt issuance? We consider these questions using OECD data on the market value of government debt between 1970 and 2000. Motivated by both the optimal taxation literature and broad considerations of debt stability we propose a range of performance indicators for debt management. We evaluate these using Monte Carlo analysis and find that those based on the relative persistence of debt perform best. Calculating these measures for OECD data provides only limited evidence that debt management has helped insulate policy against unexpected fiscal shocks. We also find that the degree of fiscal insurance achieved is not well connected to cross country variations in debt issuance patterns. Given the limited volatility observed in the yield curve the relatively small dispersion of debt management practices across countries makes little difference to the realised degree of fiscal insurance.

Changes in the demand for private medical insurance following a shift in tax incentives

The 1998 Spanish reform of the Personal Income Tax eliminated the 15% deduction for private medical expenditures including payments on private health insurance (PHI) policies. To avoid an undesirable increase in the demand for publicly funded health care, tax incentives to buy PHI were not completely removed but basically shifted from individual to group employer-paid policies. In a unique fiscal experiment, at the same time that the tax relief for individually purchased policies was abolished, the government provided for tax allowances on policies taken out through employment. Using a bivariate probit model on data from National Health Surveys, we estimate the impact of said reform on the demand for PHI and the changes occurred within it. Our findings suggest that the total probability of buying PHI was not significantly affected. Indeed, the fall in the demand for individual policies (by 10% between 1997 and 2001) was offset by an increase in the demand for group employer-paid ones, so that the overall size of the market remained virtually unchanged. We also briefly discuss the welfare effects on the state budget, the industry and society at large.