产品多元化对保险企业投资风险的影响

The Impact of Product Diversification on the Investment Risk of Insurance Companies

近年来,保险企业的投资风险备受关注,承保端负债成本上升使得企业对于投资端收益的依赖度日趋增强,产品多元化对投资风险的影响是否存在最优水平成为学界研究的热点。本文基于最优多元化理论和资产负债管理理论,考察了寿险企业产品多元化对其投资风险的影响。研究结果表明,产品多元化与投资风险之间存在非线性U型关系,验证了最优多元化水平假说;小型寿险企业的最优多元化水平低于大型寿险企业。因此,保险企业应寻求产品多元化的合理边界;小型保险企业更不能盲目扩张规模,注意承保端和投资端的决策统筹;监管层应将产品多元化水平作为防范投资风险的重要观测点,防止承保端风险传染到投资端,从而更有效地防范保险企业的投资风险。

In recent years, the investment risk of life insurance companies has attracted much attention. The rising cost of underwriting liabilities has made life insurance companies increasingly dependent on investment income. An optimal level for the impact of diversification on investment risk has become a hot topic in the academic research. Based on optimal diversification theory and asset liability management theory, this paper investigates the impact of product diversification of life insurance companies on their investment risks. The results show that there is a nonlinear U-shaped relationship between product diversification and investment risk, which verifies the optimal diversification level hypothesis;the optimal diversification level of small life insurance companies is lower than that of large life insurance companies. Therefore, life insurance companies should seek a reasonable boundary for product diversification;small life insurance companies should prevent the blind expansion of their own scale and pay attention to the decision-making and coordination of the underwriting side and the investment side. The regulators should take the level of product diversification as an important observation point to prevent investment risks, prevent the risk from the underwriting side from spreading to the investment side, and thus more effectively prevent the investment risks of life insurance companies.