In this paper, we offer a new method of managing the risk of unexpected changes in mortality underlying annuities and life insurance. This method maximizes the insurer’s profit margin, subject to constraints on its downside mortality risk. We also show how to determine bounds on mortality margins when information on the moments of the distributions is known. We provide numerical examples to ill...

Households’ insurance against shocks to income and asset values (that is, household risk management) is limited, especially for poor households. We argue that a trade-off between intertemporal financing needs and insurance across states explains this basic insurance pattern. In a model with limited enforcement, we show that household risk management is increasing in household net worth and inco...

This paper argues that moderate unemployment insurance not only reduces the uncertainty faced by risk-averse workers but also improves efficiency and raises output. We develop a model in which the decentralized equilibrium is inefficient without unemployment insurance, because the labor market endogenously creates jobs that provide risk-averse workers with low unemployment risk and low wages. E...

In conjunction with the Committee on the Global Financial System Working Group project on foreign direct investment in emerging market financial sectors, staff of the U.S. Federal Reserve examined the market for political risk insurance (PRI) and its use by financial institutions to mitigate emerging market risks. A series of meetings were undertaken in 2003 with U.S. commercial and investment ...

This article presents the results of a survey designed to test, with economically sophisticated participants, Ellsberg’s ambiguity aversion hypothesis, and Smithson’s conflict aversion hypothesis. Based on an original sample of 78 professional actuaries (all members of the French Institute of Actuaries), this article provides empirical evidence that ambiguity (i.e. uncertainty about the probabi...

Incomplete Risk Adjustment and Adverse Selection in the German Public Health Insurance System by Thomas Knaus and Robert Nuscheler The German statutory health insurance market was exposed to competition in 1996. To avoid adverse selection, a prospective risk compensation scheme was introduced in 1994. Due to their low contribution rates, company-based sickness funds were able to attract a lot o...

High correlations between risks can increase required insurer capital and/or reduce the availability of insurance. For such insurance lines, securitization is rapidly emerging as an alternative form of risk transfer. The ultimate success of securitization in replacing or complementing traditional insurance and reinsurance products depends on the ability of securitization to facilitate and/or be...

the present article studies role of iran  export insurance fund on agricultural export sector by during 1385-1391.since activity in agricultural sector is one of the most dangerous economical activities, and the most important problem of planners and politicians of agricultural development reducing risk of economic activities and increasing security coefficient for producers of agricultural sec...

Auto insurance rates can vary dramatically; premiums are often much higher in poor and minority areas than elsewhere, even after accounting for individual characteristics, driving history, and coverage. This paper uses a unique data set to examine the relative influence of place-based socioeconomic (SES) characteristics (or “redlining”) and place-based risk factors on the place-based component ...

When premiums are community-rated, risk adjustment (RA) serves to mitigate competitive insurers' incentive to select favorable risks. However, unless fully prospective, it also undermines their incentives for efficiency. By capping its volume, one may try to counteract this tendency, exposing insurers to some financial risk. This in term runs counter the quest to refine the RA formula, which wo...