In the 1970's, the research agenda in insurance was dominated by optimal insurance coverage, security design, and equilibrium under conditions of imperfect information. The 1980's saw a growth of theoretical developments including non-expected utility, price volatility, retention capacity, the pricing and design of insurance contracts in the presence of multiple risks, and the liability insurance crisis. The empirical study of information problems, financial derivatives, and large losses due to catastrophic events dominated the research agenda in the 1990's. The Handbook of Insurance provides a single reference source on insurance for professors, researchers, graduate students, regulators, consultants, and practitioners, that reviews the research developments in insurance and its related fields that have occurred over the last thirty years. The book starts with the history and foundations of insurance theory and moves on to review asymmetric information, risk management and insurance pricing, and the industrial organization of insurance markets. The book ends with life insurance, pensions, and economic security. Each chapter has been written by a leading authority in insurance, all contributions have been peer reviewed, and each chapter can be read independently of the others.

The Economics of Property-Casualty Insurance presents new research and findings on key aspects of the economics of the property-casualty insurance industry. The volume explores the industrial organization, regulation, financing, and taxation of this business. The first paper, on external financing and insurance cycles, contains a wealth of information on trends and patterns in the industry's financial structure. The last essay, which compares performance of stock and mutual insurance companies, takes a fresh look at the way a company's organizational structure affects its responses to different economic situations. Two papers focus on rate regulation in the auto insurance industry, and provide broad overviews of the structure and economics of the insurance industry as a whole. Also addressed are the system of regulating insurance companies in the United States, who insures the insurers, and the effects of tax law changes in the 1980s on the prices of insurance policies.

Insurance profits exhibit cyclical behavior that has been attributed to capital market constraints. We show that changes in interest rates simultaneously affect the insurer's capital structure and the equilibrium underwriting profit. Depending upon asset and liability maturity structure, capital market access, and reinsurance availability, insurers will be differently affected by changing interest rates. We find that the average market response to changing interest rates roughly tracks market clearing prices. These quot;cyclicalquot; effects are enhanced for firms with mismatched assets and liabilities and more costly access to new capital and reinsurance. This evidence supports the capacity constraint hypothesis.

Written for advanced undergraduate and master’s level courses, this book builds from a base of asymmetric information issues to discuss a wide array of topics and is illustrated with some timely examples. Covers diverse issues such as risk aversion, expected utility, and moral hazard within the pure theory of insurance Provides a clear exposition of the necessary mathematics, a feature which cannot be found in readers on the topic Utilizes an undergraduate economics major level of math Uses the simplest economic models possible to keep the text intuitive Introduces more mathematically complex techniques such as basic optimization for students wishing to 'go further' in their analysis

This paper contains guidance on the measurement and assessment of fishing capacity, in light of the International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity. Topics discussed include: definitions of capacity and related concepts; measurement of capacity and capacity utilisation; methodologies such as rapid appraisal techniques, stochastic production frontiers and data envelopment analysis; target capacity; interpretation and use of excess capacity measures.