Optimal dividend and capital injection strategies in common shock dependence model with time-inconsistent preferences

Abstract

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>This paper discusses the optimal dividend and capital injection problems when an insurance company has two lines of business with common shock dependence. Suppose that the manager of the company has time-inconsistent preference, which can be described by a quasi-hyperbolic discount function. The value of the company is measured by the expected discounted dividend payments minus the expected discounted costs of capital injection. The goal is to find out the optimal strategies for maximizing the value of the company. By using the stochastic control techniques, we solve the problems in all cases of time-consistent preference manager, naive manager and sophisticated manager, respectively. The closed-form solutions of the value functions are presented. Our results show that the sophisticated manager is inclined to pay out dividends earlier than the naive manager, time-inconsistent preference manager is more likely to pay dividends in advance than time-consistent preference manager. Furthermore, we provide some numerical analysis to reveal the sensitivity of the optimal dividend strategies to the dependence intensity and the cost of capital injection. The results show that, as the cost of capital injection increases, sophisticated manager will give up capital injection first, followed by naive manager. In addition, we also find that: when the cost of capital injection is low, managers think that the value of the company that undertakes two kinds of insurance with high correlation is higher; while, managers have opposite evaluations, when the cost of capital injection is high.</p>