An Examination of Adverse Selection in the Public Provision of Insurance

Using a unique data set from Florida's residual property insurer, we test for adverse selection in the public provision of homeowners’ insurance in Florida. We find a significant relationship between the losses and deductible choices of insureds in Florida's residual homeowners’ insurance market. This relationship provides strong evidence of the existence of an adverse selection problem in Florida's residual property insurance market. While this relationship is important to Florida regulators (and taxpayers) specifically, a finding of an adverse selection problem in residual markets in general has implications more broadly for government providers of insurance as an adverse selection problem in these settings will impact the public policy debates and decisions involving these markets.     

The Perfect Storm: Hurricanes, Insurance, and Regulation

The intense hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 caused considerable instability in property insurance markets in coastal states with the greatest problems occurring in Florida and the Southeast. Insurers have substantially raised rates and decreased their exposures. While no severe hurricanes struck the United States in 2006 and 2007, market pressures remain strong given the high risk still facing coastal states. These developments generate considerable concern and controversy among various stakeholder groups. Government responses have varied. In Florida, political pressures prompted a wave of legislation and regulations to expand government underwriting and subsidization of hurricane risk and constrain insurers' rates and market adjustments. Other states' actions seem more moderate. In this context, it is important to understand how property insurance markets have been changing and governments have been responding to increased catastrophe risk. This article examines important market developments and evaluates associated government policies. We comment on how regulation is affecting the equilibration of insurance markets and offer opinions on policies that are helpful and harmful.     

Asymmetric Information Problems in Taiwan's Automobile Insurance Market: The Effect of Policy Design on Loss Characteristics

This article investigates asymmetric information problems for the automobile insurance market in Taiwan. Using panel data for the comprehensive automobile insurance coverage from 1995 to 1999, this article analyzes how types of coverage, deductible amounts, and experience ratings have affected the adverse selection and moral hazard problems in Taiwan's automobile insurance market. The empirical results provide partial evidence to demonstrate that the loss frequency and loss ratio were reduced by the addition of self-selection mechanisms in policies with different levels of coverage. In addition, the deductible amounts, experience ratings, and better control of underwriting and claims processing were shown possibly to have decreased potential losses from adverse selection and moral hazard problems.     

中国财产保险市场之竞争测度与结构分析

如果只从市场集中度判定市场竞争的程度,难以客观地反映出真实状况,本文使用Bresnahan与Lau提出的BL模型,利用非结构的方法使用更多信息分析我国财产保险市场。在财险公司追求利润最大化的假设下建立模型,采用2002年至2009年数据,对模型参数进行估计,从而分析我国财险市场竞争情况。研究发现,我国市场属于高度竞争的...     

The new political importance of the old hurricane risk: a contextual approach to understanding contemporary struggles with hurricane risk and insurance

In the United States, policy-makers struggle to resolve conflict between public demands for affordable insurance costs covering hurricanes and market demands for risk-based insurance pricing. Given the socially constructed nature of risk, a risk-based pricing approach prioritizes insurer values and business practices over all societal value goals expressly limiting democratic inclusion in decision-making about risk. As a step towards the more democratically inclusive approach of risk governance, this article uses the state of Florida as a case study to provide a narrative of the social and political context for the evolution of the idea of U.S. hurricane risk. I argue that today’s hurricane risk is a product of long-standing shared efforts to build prosperity. However, it is no longer a simple risk for society to overcome on its way to economic well-being. Contemporary hurricane risk is systemic and serves as a nexus for political battles over American values.     

社会医疗保险、自我保护与商业健康保险

基于消费者保险需求理论,采用中国家庭金融调查（CHFS）数据,分析了社会医疗保险、自我保护与商业健康保险之间的关系。结果表明：社会医疗保险抑制了商业健康保险的发展,显著减少了自我保护支出;自我保护促进了商业健康保险的发展。鉴于此,政府应制定合理的封顶线及报销比例以提供适度的基本医疗保险保障水平,商业保险公司应提供差异化的健康保险以补充社会医疗保险,政府及保险公司应鼓励自我保护投资以促进商业健康保险发展。     

Early Mover Advantages: Evidence From the Long‐Term Care Insurance Market

Researchers frequently question whether financial firms benefit by developing new products because barriers to entry common to other industries generally do not exist. Studies of early mover advantages for new financial products provide mixed evidence at best. We find evidence of early mover advantages in the relatively young market for long‐term care insurance (LTCI) using data that allow broad testing of financial performance. Product differentiation, individual lines exposure, firm size, and traditional health insurance experience also affect financial performance.     

Market discipline and deposit insurance

Cross-country evidence presented in this paper suggests that explicit deposit insurance reduces required deposit interest rates, while at the same time it lowers market discipline on bank risk taking. Internationally, deposit insurance schemes vary widely in their coverage, funding, and management. This reflects that there are widely differing views on how deposit insurance should optimally be structured. To inform this debate, we use a newly constructed data set of deposit insurance design features to examine how different design features affect deposit interest rates and market discipline.     

中国财产保险市场分析

中国自1980年恢复国内财产保险业务以来,保费收入以年均25.3%的速度增长,分析中国财产保险市场状况,对完善我国财产市场,有着重要意义。目前我国财产保险市场在发育过程中还面临着较多的矛盾,应从财产保险市场主体、市场结构、产品体系、财产保险市场的空间布局、财产保险市场开放模式等多角度、多方面着手,完善我国财产保险市场体系。     

The Political Economy of Deposit Insurance

This paper uses a political economy framework to analyze cross-country differences in deposit insurance coverage. It finds supporting evidence of the significance of private interest theories in explaining coverage of deposit insurance. Deposit insurance coverage is significantly higher in countries where poorly capitalized banks dominate the market and in countries where depositors are poorly educated. The analysis does not find that coverage is significantly related to political-institutional variables, such as the degree of democracy or restraints on the executive, or to proxies for the general level of institutional development, such as per capita income or property rights. These results provide evidence in support of the private interest view, according to which risky banks lobby for extensive coverage.     

The Relationship Between Home Market Performance and Internationalization Decisions: Evidence From German Insurance Groups

This study investigates the relationship between home market performance and the choice of foreign market entry mode using survey data and financial statement data for German insurance groups with property–liability business from 1999 to 2011. We develop a dynamic resource‐based perspective and argue that strategic transformation is a major motive driving the decisions of insurance groups to internationalize their businesses. Additionally, the more rapid the strategic transformation, the more intense is the choice of market entry mode. Furthermore, our findings corroborate the notion that internationalization has a positive effect on home market performance when insurance groups are able to decrease home market dependence by extending the degree of internationalization.     

我国责任保险市场发展问题研究

本文系统研究中国责任保险市场发展基本状况,分别从我国责任保险的保费情况、市场份额、保险深度和密度等角度,分析责任保险市场发展现状及存在的问题,指出违法成本低、法律外部环境不健全、国家与保险公司重视程度不够是当前责任保险发展不足的主要原因。随后本文总结了发达国家责任保险的发展经验,并结合国内实际,提出了扩大责任保险的有效供给、增加责任保险的有效需求、因地制宜发展责任保险、完善与责任保险相关的法律法规以及部分责任保险需强制实施等在内的五条建议。     

Market Pricing of Deposit Insurance

We provide an approach to the market valuation of deposit insurance that is based on reduced-form methods for the pricing of fixed-income securities under default risk. By reference to bank debt prices as well as qualitative-response models of the probability of bank failure, we suggest how a risk-neutral valuation model for deposit insurance can be applied both to the calculation of fair-market deposit insurance premia and to the valuation of long-term claims against the insurer.     

Flood Hazards, Insurance Rates, and Amenities: Evidence From the Coastal Housing Market

This study employs the hedonic property price method to examine the effects of flood hazard on coastal property values. We utilize Geographic Information System data on National Flood Insurance Program flood zones and residential property sales from Carteret County, North Carolina. Our results indicate that location within a flood zone lowers property value. Price differentials for flood risk and the capitalized value of flood insurance premiums are roughly equivalent—both exhibiting a nonlinear relationship in flood probability. Our results support the conclusion that flood zone designation and insurance premiums convey risk information to potential buyers in the coastal housing market.     

限额存款保险与中国银行业的市场约束

一般认为,限额存款保险制度让存款人的资产部分地暴露于风险之中,从而市场约束虽然比无保险状态下较弱但仍然有效,因此世界上实行存款保险制度的国家多采用限额保险。本文认为,中国银行业特殊的股权结构,以及长期以来政府对大银行的资金支持形成了存款人规模偏好和银行大而不倒(too big to fail)的预期;这一预期特征必将异化市场约束,进而导致银行陷入无序的规模竞争并激励其风险承担;如果单纯实施限额存款保险制度,非但不能修正中国商业银行市场约束的异化问题,而且将强化公众的大而不倒预期,使市场约束面临更严重的扭曲。     

Transparency in the Mortgage Market

This paper studies the impact of transparency in the mortgage market on the underlying real estate market. We show that geographic transparency in the secondary mortgage market, which implies geographic risk based pricing in the primary market, can limit risk-sharing and make house prices more volatile. Ex ante, regions prefer opaque markets to enable insurance opportunities. We discuss the implications for risk based pricing and house price volatility more generally. In addition, we investigate the specific conditions under which competitive lenders would optimally choose to provide opaque lending, thus reducing volatility in the real estate market. We show that in general the opaque competitive equilibrium is not stable, and lenders have incentive to switch to transparent lending if one of the geographic regions has experienced a negative income shock. We propose market and regulatory mechanisms that make the opaque competitive equilibrium stable and insurance opportunities possible.     

The Asymmetric Information Problem in Taiwan's Cancer Insurance Market

This paper investigates the problem of asymmetric information in Taiwan’s cancer insurance market. Through the survey data, we find evidence of adverse selection existing in this market. Furthermore, we collect additional information on the individual, and find that the individual’s family cancer history contains additional valuable information. It can not only more accurately predict the probability of contracting cancer, as well as predict the willingness to purchase extended cancer insurance, but it can also help to mitigate the severity of adverse selection in the insurance market.     

The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market

In this paper we provide an overview of the historical development of the insurance market in Sweden from the eighteenth century up to modern times. We consider theoretical perspectives drawn from the economics and political regulation literature that might help to explain important institutional features of the market - in particular, its oligopoly structure, the lack of foreign participation and the significant presence of mutual forms of organisation. We also offer a prognosis as to the current challenges and prospects of the Swedish insurance market in an increasingly competitive and global market.     

中国寿险市场存在逆向选择吗?——来自CHARLS数据的经验证据

我国寿险市场是否存在逆向选择问题,在理论和实证两个方面缺乏细致的讨论。本文利用CHARLS数据和正相关理论检验了我国定期寿险和终身寿险市场中的逆向选择问题。我们选取了死亡率这一远期指标和健康状况这一近期指标来衡量消费者的死亡风险,从广延边际和集约边际两个方面利用正相关理论进行了深入的研究。实证结论表明,以死亡率和健康状况衡量的死亡风险与寿险消费负相关或者不相关,即我国寿险市场并不存在逆向选择问题。然后,我们讨论了模型的内生性问题,并根据年龄变量检验了结论的稳健性,实证结果表明我们的结论是稳健的。最后,本文利用双变量Probit模型设计了一个机制,并利用该机制验证了利他动机是我国寿险市场不存在逆向选择的原因之一。     

我国财产保险市场承保效益影响因素分析

近年来,我国产险市场业务呈现快速增长态势,竞争主体迅速增多,市场集中度不断下降,竞争越来越激烈.市场不规范现象经常出现,费率下降,各家保险企业的承保效益出现普遍亏损现象,直接影响了行业的可持续发展和削弱了我国产险企业的市场竞争力.基于此,本文以我国产险市场上10家产险企业为样本,以2004至2008年的数据进行面板回归...