Embedded value

Abstract: Many insurers disclose Embedded Value reports, a 'capital market-consistent' valuation framework for their life insurance business, to provide investors with additional information. We examine the incremental and relative information content of Embedded Value components in comparison to the existing mandatory accounting standards. Our findings can help to predict the capital market effects of the new insurance accounting standard IFRS 4 Phase II, which will be introduced in 2018 and is based on similar principles as the EV framework. Our results show that the incremental information content of the EV framework is limited and even decreasing since 2009. The current IFRS framework seem to have more explanatory power for insurers' stock prices and returns in the current economic environment which casts doubt about benefits of IFRS 4 Phase II. Our comprehensive analysis of the incremental value relevance of EV and EV earnings subcomponents shows that investors would profit from an explicit valuation of options and guarantees and a presentation scheme of earnings which differentiates between inforce and new business.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to determine the value of business intelligence software in the adjusted net assets value used in the process of evaluating a company's goodwill. The paper starts with a literature based approach for asserting the added value brought by business intelligence software in a company which will be used as a support for proposing a new method of determining the adjusted net assets value. These new market value oriented approaches are benchmarked for a diverse sample consisting of both BVB and NYSE listed companies. The estimated result of this research is the determination of an adjusted net assets valuation method that will take into account the value of business intelligence software a company uses and correct its goodwill. The research presents an extensive literature review and adopts a positivist paradigm in evaluating the theoretically constructed method. It also consists of a critical approach of case studies presented by literature. The importance of this research is to provide the investors with a better way of valuating adjusted net assets and, as a consequence, a company's goodwill, which can lead to better investing, practices in the future. Also, this research can provide a new and improved tool for anyone who wishes to adapt their valuation instruments to the changes resulted from technological progress.

Abstract: The diffusion of international production networks has challenged the capability of traditional trade statistics to provide an adequate representation of supply and demand linkages among the economies. To address this issue, new statistical tools (the Inter-Country Input-Output tables) and new analytical frameworks have been developed. Koopman, Wang and Wei propose an accounting methodology to decompose a country’s total gross exports by source and final destination of their embedded value added. We develop this approach further by deriving a fully consistent counterpart for bilateral trade flows, refining the original framework. Along with other contributions, our methodology completes the bridge between traditional trade statistics and the systems of national accounts and provides new tools for investigating global value chains. Here we present two empirical applications of two different versions of our decomposition of bilateral trade flows: one explores the forward linkages of Italian exports; the second derives a measure of the share of value-chain-related trade and assesses how its evolution since the mid-1990s has affected the relationship between world trade and income.

Abstract: This paper focuses on the value creation and the value drivers. One of the objectives of this paper is to present the concept of maximizing shareholder value. The main goal is to categorize the most important value drivers, and their role of the firms’ value. This study proceeds as follows. The first section presents the value chain, the primary and the support activities. The second part describes the theoretical background of maximizing shareholder value. The third part illustrates the key value drivers. The fourth empirical section of the study analyses the database featuring data from 18 European countries, 10 sectors and 1553 firms in the period between 2004 and 2011. Finally, the fifth section includes concluding remarks. Based on the related literature reviewed and in the conducted empirical research it can be assessed that, the EBIT, reinvestment, invested capital, the return on invested capital, the net margin and the sales growth rate all have a positive effect on firm value, while the tax rate and the market value of return on asset (MROA) has a negative one.