An Empirical Study on the Relationship between CEO and Board Characteristics and Capital Adequacy Ratio: Evidence from Life Insurance Industry in Taiwan

[[abstract]]壽險業由於其高槓桿性之特質，屬於高度管制之行業。2008年金融海嘯以來，四家台灣本土壽險公司（國華人壽、國寶人壽、幸福人壽和朝陽人壽）遭接管，反映了壽險業公司治理和風險管理上的重大缺失。因此本研究立基於高層理論(Upper Echelons Theory)，以2008年至2015年公開發行之本國壽險公司為研究對象，分別探討CEO特性和董事會特性與資本適足率之關聯性。經由迴歸實證結果發現，CEO教育程度、董監事出席率和獨立董監事席次越高，資本適足率也越高。另外，CEO持股比率愈高，則資本適足率越低。再者，CEO國際化經驗與資本適足率的正向關係、董監事教育程度與資本適足率的正向關係，皆未能顯著獲得支持。[[abstract]]Life Insurance Industry is subject to high degree of regulatory control because of its high financial leverage Four Taiwan life insurance companies (Kuo Hua Global Singfor and Chao Yang) have been taken over since the 2008 financial crisis reflecting a significant lack of corporate governance and risk management in the life insurance industry Therefore this paper is based on the Upper Echelons Theory investigating the relationships between CEO and board characteristics and capital adequacy ratio Using a dataset of public issued commercial life insurance industry in Taiwan during 2008~2015 this study finds that insurance companies with higher CEO education level higher board attendance ratio and higher independent director and supervisor ratio have higher capital adequacy ratios Additionally CEO ownership is negatively and significantly related to the capital adequacy ratios Moreover CEO international experience is positively related to the capital adequacy ratios and board education level is positively related to the capital adequacy ratios but both are not significan