Thanks to the efforts of many illustrious medical director~ and actuaries, comparative mortality was developed in the early part of this century as the indispensable tool for life insurance underwriting of individual applicants. The work of Rogers and Hunter culminated in the publication of the numerical rating system. Over the years results of many insurance mortality studies of impaired risks...

Soil conservation efforts in Indonesia since the Dutch colonial era have focused on introducing bench terraces—a costly soil conservation method for poor, upland farmers. Data from two villages in the Kerinci uplands of Sumatra illustrate that even with state underwriting of bench terrace construction, farmers across all economic strata still resist using this method. Why the state has not purs...

The use of advanced data mining techniques to improve decision making has already taken root in property and casualty insurance as well as in many other industries [1, 2]. However, the application of such techniques for more objective, consistent and optimal decision making in the life insurance industry is still in a nascent stage. This article will describe ways data mining and multivariate a...

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the nature of bond underwriting syndicates organized by commercial banks. I use a unique data set from Japan during a prewar period when banks were permitted to underwrite corporate bonds. The paper shows that risk aversion led to a greater tendency for investment houses to form a syndicate than commercial banks. The evidence is consistent wit...

Executive Summary Ovarian tumors of low malignant potential can be a challenge in daily underwriting, as even clinicians are not in full agreement about the correct approach. This article sheds light on this tumor and highlights some of the key favorable factors when underwriting this condition. INTRODUCTION Ovarian tumors of low malignant potential, also known as borderline tumors of the ovary...

Why did the mortgage market melt down so badly? Why were there so many defaults when the economy was not particularly weak? Why were the securities based upon these mortgages not considered anywhere as risky as they actually turned out to be? It is the thesis of this paper that, in an attempt to increase homeownership, particularly by minorities and the less affluent, an attack on underwriting ...