Price Regulation in Secondary Insurance Markets

Secondary life insurance markets are growing rapidly. From nearly no transactions in 1980, a wide variety of similar products in this market has developed, including viatical settlements, accelerated death benefits, and life settlements and as the population ages, these markets will become increasingly popular. Eight state governments, in a bid to guarantee sellers a “fair” price, have passed regulations setting a price floor on secondary life insurance market transactions, and more are considering doing the same. Using data from a unique random sample of HIV+ patients, we estimate welfare losses from transactions prevented by binding price floors in the viatical settlements market (an important segment of the secondary life insurance market). We find that price floors bind on HIV patients with greater than 4 years of life expectancy. Furthermore, HIV patients from states with price floors are significantly less likely to viaticate than similarly healthy HIV patients from other states. If price floors were adopted nationwide, they would rule out transactions worth $119 million per year. We find that the magnitude of welfare loss from these blocked transactions would be highest for consumers who are relatively poor, have weak bequest motives, and have a high rate of time preference.     

Beta-2 microglobulin as a marker for HIV infection

Beta-2 microglobulin is a sensitive surrogate test for HIV infection for use in jurisdictions where HIV antibody tests are not allowed to be performed on life insurance applicants by law/regulation. The advantage of beta-2 microglobulin over T cell testing, which is a surrogate test also used by the life insurance industry for detecting HIV infection, is the stability of B 2M in serum over long periods of time.     

Impact of AIDS/HIV on medical directors

The decade of AIDS/HIV has changed the way insurance medicine is practiced by medical directors. One director details some of these changes.     

Statistical analysis of HIV seropositive results from 1988-1993 performed on life insurance applicants

This review of statistical data, derived from HIV antibody testing performed on life insurance applicants over a period of five and one-half years, reflects the evolving nature of the HIV epidemic in the United States and demonstrates how the findings in the life insurance low risk population mirror the trends and changes that are occurring in the general population.     

Update on HIV infection

In the third decade of the global epidemic, it is evident that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease is quite different from the disease first recognized among a small number of homosexual men in 1981. The spread of HIV has been particularly alarming in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and it continues to threaten other populations in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. HIV therapeutic advances have resulted in a marked decrease in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) incidence and death in the United States and Western Europe. With the introduction of "triple therapy," antiretroviral treatment has resulted in an extraordinary increase in the quality of life and life expectancy among HIV-infected persons. However, the rate of decline in AIDS incidence and deaths from the latter part of 1998 through 2000 has slowed for a number of reasons. Even with the stabilization of HIV in Western countries, it remains as important as ever to follow sound insurance principles to address HIV risk. The clinical success stories have yet to be translated into the insurance realm. A very strict analysis of the medical literature will be needed.     

参保密度、市场竞争与农业保险公司的成本费用

基于2010-2019年全国各地区面板数据,运用门槛回归模型,考量不同市场竞争强度下参保密度对农业保险成本费用的影响。结果显示：参保密度对农业保险的成本费用具有显著影响,但是在市场竞争强度门槛变量下呈现出不同的影响方向,当市场竞争较弱时,参保密度对农业保险的成本费用具有显著负向影响;当市场竞争较强时,参保密度对农业保险的成本费用具有显著正向影响。因此,在参保密度提升的前提下,会使得地区的农业保险市场存在一个最优竞争强度。     

商业保险对居民消费影响研究——基于中国省级面板数据的经验证据

当前中国经济社会处于快速转型期,伴随着改革进程的不确定性风险日趋凸显,成为制约居民消费进一步扩张的重要因素。本文采用2003~2017年中国省级面板数据,考察了商业保险对居民消费行为的影响效应及其作用机制。研究发现,以商业保险密度和保险强度为表征的商业保险发展对居民消费有着显著正向影响,相较于农村居民消费,商业保险对城镇居民呈现更强的消费效应,同时财产保险消费效应明显高于人身保险对居民消费影响,进一步地,中介效应检验发现,不确定性缓解可能是商业保险影响居民消费的一个重要机制。基于此,本文认为,构筑完善的商业保险服务体系对于启动居民消费具有重要意义。     

董事责任保险的法律考察

董事责任保险是为公司董事或高级管理人员职业责任提供的一种补偿性保险。对我国上市公司而言,董事责任保险既是对董事及高管人员利益的保障,也可帮助股东监督经营者的行为,对完善上市公司治理结构亦具有积极意义。然而,根据我国目前的董事民事责任制度、证券民事赔偿制度以及诉讼费用制度,董事责任保险并无大多发展空间。为充分发挥董事责任保险的价值,我国在引入董事责任保险制度时,有必要同步完善证券民事诉讼机制,合理设计董事责任承保范围,规定董事适度支付保险费用,并采取期内索赔式保险。     

乐观预期、保障能力与商业保险购买——来自中国家庭的微观证据

本文基于中国家庭微观调查数据,在考虑商业保险“保障”和“投资”双重属性的前提下,实证研究了乐观预期对家庭商业保险购买的影响。结果发现,乐观预期对家庭商业保险购买存在显著的积极影响,即户主乐观预期程度越高,家庭购买商业保险的意愿越强。进一步区分保障型商业保险和投资型商业保险,发现乐观预期对商业保险购买的积极影响主要来自对投资型商业保险的需求,对保障型商业保险购买的影响则不显著。更重要地,不同风险保障能力下乐观预期对商业保险购买存在异质性影响,家庭储蓄较多、社会保障覆盖较好以及社会资本水平较高的家庭,乐观预期对商业保险购买的积极影响更大。本研究不仅有助于从预期视角理解商业保险市场的“有限参与”之谜,也为提升家庭风险保障和财富增值能力提供了借鉴。     

Development in medical underwriting in Germany

Life insurance companies generate profits primarily with life insurance and disability protection. Individual risk assessment serves to avoid adverse selection. The assessment of medical risks is based generally on the classification requirements of the reinsurance companies. For this reason the reinsurers provide the primary insurance companies with classification manuals. The manuals from the reinsurers differ only slightly. By means of three examples (heart diseases, cancer and HIV) the development for the last 30 years of underwriting in medical risks is explained in this article.     

保险业对经济增长影响的实证分析——基于修正的Solow模型

保险业对于经济增长和社会稳定的作用已得到广泛认同。本文通过估计若干衡量生产效率的指标,以检验财产保险和人身保险在中国经济增长中发挥的作用。文中选用1994年～2007年国内的14组数据来建立我国的经济增长模型,发现在控制了教育、贸易出口、财政支出和投资增长率等变量后,财产保险深度对经济增长具有显著的正面影响,而人身保险深度的影响却不显著。该实证分析结果还表明,与保险和银行的独立影响相比,保险深度和银行贷款占比对经济增长的联合影响更为显著。     

贷款保证保险:发展情况、现存问题及建议

发展贷款保证保险对于缓解小微企业融资难有着积极的意义。从20世纪80年代开始,国内贷款保证保险的试点工作就已陆续开展。然而,发展贷款保证保险面临法律法规不健全、信用风险较大、银保合作不顺畅等问题。为积极发展贷款保证保险,需要完善相关的法律法规,优化社会信用生态环境,理顺银保合作关系。     

实现政策性农业保险与地区农业发展有效对接的建议

2007年以来,哈密地区逐步开展农业保险试点推广工作,在保险产品种类创新、保险赔付等方面,受到了社会的认可,在防范和减少农业风险损失方面,发挥了积极作用。但政策性农业保险服务农村经济的功能尚未得到有效发挥,农业保险支持与地区＂三农＂经济发展不能有效对接,未能充分达到互惠共赢。本文就如何实现政策性农业保险与地区农业发展有效对接进行探析。     

外资进入对中国保险业效率的影响

通过将保险企业的经营活动进行分解,本文对外资进入可能引发的资本形成效应、市场竞争效应和技术外溢效应等三个假说进行了检验,首次探讨了外资进入对中国保险业效率可能产生的影响。研究发现:(1)外资进入所带来的资本形成效应是对中国保险业效率改善最为直接的经济效应,但它主要通过扩展保险业务来实现,保险资金运用的效率并没有明显提升;(2)外资进入引发的市场竞争效应确实对保险业的效率改进起到了一定的积极作用,而且外资机构数量的增加比资产和市场份额的增长对效率的影响更为明显;(3)保险机构的外资持股比例与其效率水平之间存在显著的U型关系,外资持股比例在达到一定程度后,技术外溢效应才会对中国保险业效率起到推动作用。     

中国信贷增长与保险发展关系的动态分析——基于bootstrap仿真的实证研究

采用基于bootstrap仿真的Wald检验、似然比检验、Lagrange数乘检验三种Granger因果检验方法对1985～2010年我国保险与银行信贷Granger因果关系及其动态变化进行分析,并对两者相互累积作用进行bootstrap模拟估计,结果表明:在全样本情形下我国信贷发展不是保险的Granger原因,而我国保险发展是银行信贷的Granger原因;保险与银行信贷Granger因果关系随保险发展发生了结构性变化;除2004年之外,信贷对保险的累积作用均呈正向作用,而保险对信贷的累积作用呈现上下波动的不稳定特征。     

中国失业保险支出水平的测度模型与实证分析

中国失业保险制度应该保持合理的支出水平，衡量标准主要看其是否为失业者提供了适度的收入保障以及是否对就业起到积极的促进作用。本文建立了测量失业保险支出水平的数理模型，根据国外典型国家的经验数据大体确定了失业保险支出水平的适度界限，并对中国现实的失业保险支出水平及其影响因素进行了分析，最后提出了完善失业保险制度以及合理提高失业保险支出水平的政策建议。     

微观经济个体参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响效应研究

本文根据2016年中国家庭追踪调查数据,运用面板数据回归方法和倾向得分匹配法(PSM)研究微观经济个体参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响。研究表明,城镇职工医疗保险参保行为显著提高了医疗总费用和自付费用,城乡居民医疗保险参保行为对降低医疗总费用和自付费用具有一定的积极作用,新农合参保行为显著降低了医疗总费用,对自付费用的降低具有一定的积极作用。运用PSM法解决内生性问题和消除选择性偏差后得到的净效应结果与上述发现基本一致。参保行为与医院等级的交互分析表明,选择社区诊所等基层诊疗机构就诊可显著降低医疗总费用和自付费用,选择综合医院就诊则显著提高医疗总费用和自付费用。此外,参保行为对医疗费用支出的影响具有个体和区域异质性。据此,建议增强基层医疗卫生服务能力,进一步提高统筹层次,推进公共卫生服务均等化。     

Insurance Derivatives: A New Asset Class for the Capital Markets and a New Hedging Tool for the Insurance Industry

The number and severity of natural catastrophes has increased dramatically over the last decade. As a result, there is now a shortage of capacity in the property catastrophe insurance industry in the U.S. This article discusses how insurance derivatives, particularly the Chicago Board of Trade's catastrophe options contracts, represent a possible solution to this problem. These new financial instruments enable the capital markets to provide the insurance industry with the reinsurance capacity it needs. The capital markets are willing to perform this role because of the new asset class characteristics of securitized insurance risk: positive excess returns and diversification benefits.
The article also demonstrates how insurance companies can use insurance derivatives such as catastrophe options and catastrophe-linked bonds as effective, low-cost risk management tools. In reviewing the performance of the catastrophe contracts to date, the authors report promising signs of growth and liquidity in these markets.     

股权结构对财险公司风险承担行为影响的实证研究

本文从理论层面上剖析了公司股权结构对风险承担的影响及具体作用机理,然后基于2002~2018年我国77家财险公司的非平衡面板数据构建联立方程模型,利用三阶段最小二乘法(3SLS)进行参数估计。研究发现,股权结构对我国财险公司的风险承担行为存在显著影响。具体而言,股权集中度对承保风险存在显著正向影响,表现出"侵占效应";股权制衡度对承保风险存在显著负向影响,对投资风险存在显著正向影响;外资参股对承保风险和投资风险分别存在显著正向和负向影响,外资股东的进入有利于降低财产保险公司的投资风险,但在一定程度上会提高其承保风险。基于此,本文提出强化股权的穿透式监管、推进形成"相对集中、多股制衡"的股权结构以及适当引入外资丰富财险公司股权结构等建议。     

基本养老保险对居民幸福感的影响及其机制研究

完善基本养老保险制度是增进民生福祉与加强社会治理的关键要义。过往研究主要关注基本养老保险对幸福感的主效应,鲜有探讨异质性和中介效应。基于中国综合社会调查2015年的数据,利用有序Logit模型和倾向得分匹配模型,重点探讨基本养老保险对居民幸福感的影响机制。研究表明:参加基本养老保险对居民幸福感具有显著正向作用;基本养老保险显著提升中低收入居民的幸福感,但对高收入居民的影响微弱;社会信任在基本养老保险参与和居民幸福感之间发挥部分中介作用。因此,为了提升居民幸福感,我国在多层次养老保险体系建设中应以基本养老保险制度为重点,同时加快推进第二层次的企业年金制度和第三层次的个人储蓄性养老保险制度的发展,努力为培育社会信任提供公平正义的养老保险制度环境。