Foundations of Insurance Economics

Foundations of Insurance Economics
Author: Georges Dionne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 748
Release: 1992
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0792392043

Economic and financial research on insurance markets has undergone dramatic growth since its infancy in the early 1960s. Our main objective in compiling this volume was to achieve a wider dissemination of key papers in this literature. Their significance is highlighted in the introduction, which surveys major areas in insurance economics. While it was not possible to provide comprehensive coverage of insurance economics in this book, these readings provide an essential foundation to those who desire to conduct research and teach in the field. In particular, we hope that this compilation and our introduction will be useful to graduate students and to researchers in economics, finance, and insurance. Our criteria for selecting articles included significance, representativeness, pedagogical value, and our desire to include theoretical and empirical work. While the focus of the applied papers is on property-liability insurance, they illustrate issues, concepts, and methods that are applicable in many areas of insurance. The S. S. Huebner Foundation for Insurance Education at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School made this book possible by financing publication costs. We are grateful for this assistance and to J. David Cummins, Executive Director of the Foundation, for his efforts and helpful advice on the contents. We also wish to thank all of the authors and editors who provided permission to reprint articles and our respective institutions for technical and financial support.

Research Handbook on the Economics of Insurance Law

Research Handbook on the Economics of Insurance Law
Author: Daniel Schwarcz
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 549
Release: 2015-08-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782547142

The fields of insurance law and insurance economics have long and distinguished scholarly histories, but participants in the two disciplines have not always communicated well across academic silos. This Handbook encourages more policy-relevant insurance e

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance
Author: Amy Finkelstein
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0231538685

Addressing the challenge of covering heath care expenses—while minimizing economic risks. Moral hazard—the tendency to change behavior when the cost of that behavior will be borne by others—is a particularly tricky question when considering health care. Kenneth J. Arrow’s seminal 1963 paper on this topic (included in this volume) was one of the first to explore the implication of moral hazard for health care, and Amy Finkelstein—recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic—here examines this issue in the context of contemporary American health care policy. Drawing on research from both the original RAND Health Insurance Experiment and her own research, including a 2008 Health Insurance Experiment in Oregon, Finkelstein presents compelling evidence that health insurance does indeed affect medical spending and encourages policy solutions that acknowledge and account for this. The volume also features commentaries and insights from other renowned economists, including an introduction by Joseph P. Newhouse that provides context for the discussion, a commentary from Jonathan Gruber that considers provider-side moral hazard, and reflections from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow. “Reads like a fireside chat among a group of distinguished, articulate health economists.” —Choice

Essays on the Economics of Selected Multi-Period Insurance Decisions with Private Information

Essays on the Economics of Selected Multi-Period Insurance Decisions with Private Information
Author: Petra Steinorth
Publisher: VVW GmbH
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3862980790

"Petra Steinorth präsentiert in ihrer in englischer Sprache vorgelegten kumulativen Dissertationsschrift drei theoretische Modelle, die Versicherungsentscheidungen über mehrere Perioden und bei privater Information seitens der Versicherungsnehmer ökonomisch untersuchen. Die Dissertation leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur theoretischen Forschung im Bereich Versicherungsökonomie, da insbesondere zu mehrperiodigen Fragestellungen noch großer Forschungsbedarf besteht: Der Beitrag ""Impact of Health Savings Accounts on Precautionary Savings, Demand for Health Insurance and Prevention Effort"" untersucht den Einfluss von steuerlich begünstigten Gesundheitssparkonten auf das Sparverhalten, die Nachfrage nach Krankenversicherung und Prävention. Im zweiten Beitrag ""Yes, No, Perhaps - Explaining the Demand for Risk Classification Insurance with Imperfect Private Information"" wird untersucht, welche Granularität der Risikoklassifizierung optimal ist, wenn die Versicherungsnehmer unvollständige private Information über ihren zukünftigen Risikotyp haben. Der dritte Beitrag ""The Demand for Enhanced Annuities"" analysiert die Reaktion des Marktes auf die Einführung von sogenannten Enhanced Annuities. Dabei handelt es sich um Rentenversicherungsprodukte, die die individuelle Lebenserwartung bei der Tarifierung berücksichtigen. Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit ist auch für Mitarbeiter in Versicherungsunternehmen von Interesse, da sie wichtige Bereiche des Produktmanagements in der Lebens- und Krankenversicherung behandelt. Petra Steinorth ́s dissertation consists of three theoretical models, which all examine the economics of selected multi-period insurance decisions with private information on the part of the insured. The thesis makes an important contribution to insurance economics literature as multi-period problems have not yet been widely studied. The article ""Impact of Health Savings Accounts on Precautionary Savings, Demand for Health Insurance and Prevention Effort"" investigates how tax incentives like health savings accounts influence savings for medical costs, the demand for health insurance and ex ante moral hazard. The second article ""Yes, no, perhaps - Explaining the Demand for Risk Classification Insurance"" examines the optimal risk classification in case the insured have incomplete private information regarding their future risk type. The third article ""The Demand for Enhanced Annuities"" analyzes the market reaction to the introduction of so-called enhanced annuities, which are annuities that take individual factors influencing life expectancy into account for pricing. The scientific dissertation is also of interest to insurance practitioners as it examines important issues in the field of health and life insurance product management."

Morals and Markets

Morals and Markets
Author: Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2017-08-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0231545428

Life insurance—the promise of an insurer to pay a sum upon a person's death in exchange for a regular premium—is a bizarre enterprise. How can we monetize human life? Should we? What statistics do we use, what assumptions do we make, and what behavioral factors do we consider? First published in 1979, Morals and Markets Is a pathbreaking study exploring the development of life insurance in the United States. Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer combines economic history and a sociological perspective to advance a novel interpretation of the life insurance industry. The book pioneered a cultural approach to the analysis of morally controversial markets. Zelizer begins in the mid-nineteenth century with the rise of the life insurance industry, a contentious chapter in the history of American business. Life insurance was stigmatized at first, denounced in newspapers and condemned by religious leaders as an immoral and sacrilegious gamble on human life. Over time, the business became a widely praised arrangement to secure a family's future. How did life insurance overcome cultural barriers? As Zelizer shows, the evolution of the industry in the United States matched evolving attitudes toward death, money, family relations, property, and personal legacy.

Handbook of Insurance

Handbook of Insurance
Author: Georges Dionne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 1133
Release: 2013-12-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1461401550

This new edition of the Handbook of Insurance reviews the last forty years of research developments in insurance and its related fields. A single reference source for professors, researchers, graduate students, regulators, consultants and practitioners, the book starts with the history and foundations of risk and insurance theory, followed by a review of prevention and precaution, asymmetric information, risk management, insurance pricing, new financial innovations, reinsurance, corporate governance, capital allocation, securitization, systemic risk, insurance regulation, the industrial organization of insurance markets and other insurance market applications. It ends with health insurance, longevity risk, long-term care insurance, life insurance financial products and social insurance. This second version of the Handbook contains 15 new chapters. Each of the 37 chapters has been written by leading authorities in risk and insurance research, all contributions have been peer reviewed, and each chapter can be read independently of the others.

Insurance and Behavioral Economics

Insurance and Behavioral Economics
Author: Howard C. Kunreuther
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-01-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0521845726

This book examines the behavior of individuals at risk and insurance industry policy makers involved in selling, buying and regulation.

Essays on the Great Depression

Essays on the Great Depression
Author: Ben S. Bernanke
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2009-01-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400820278

From the Nobel Prize–winning economist and former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, a landmark book that provides vital lessons for understanding financial crises and their sometimes-catastrophic economic effects As chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve during the Global Financial Crisis, Ben Bernanke helped avert a greater financial disaster than the Great Depression. And he did so by drawing directly on what he had learned from years of studying the causes of the economic catastrophe of the 1930s—work for which he was later awarded the Nobel Prize. This influential work is collected in Essays on the Great Depression, an important account of the origins of the Depression and the economic lessons it teaches.

The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance

The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance
Author: John A. Nyman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2003
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780804744881

Why do people buy health insurance? Conventional theory holds that people purchase insurance because they prefer the certainty of paying a small premium to the risk of getting sick and paying a large medical bill. This book presents a new theory of consumer demand for health insurance. It holds that people purchase insurance to obtain additional "income" when they become ill.

The Financing of Catastrophe Risk

The Financing of Catastrophe Risk
Author: Kenneth A. Froot
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2007-12-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226266257

Is it possible that the insurance and reinsurance industries cannot handle a major catastrophe? Ten years ago, the notion that the overall cost of a single catastrophic event might exceed $10 billion was unthinkable. With ever increasing property-casualty risks and unabated growth in hazard-prone areas, insurers and reinsurers now envision the possibility of disaster losses of $50 to $100 billion in the United States. Against this backdrop, the capitalization of the insurance and reinsurance industries has become a crucial concern. While it remains unlikely that a single event might entirely bankrupt these industries, a big catastrophe could place firms under severe stress, jeopardizing both policy holders and investors and causing profound ripple effects throughout the U.S. economy. The Financing of Catastrophe Risk assembles an impressive roster of experts from academia and industry to explore the disturbing yet realistic assumption that a large catastrophic event is inevitable. The essays offer tangible means of both reassessing and raising the level of preparedness throughout the insurance and reinsurance industries.