Determinants of non-life insurance expenditure in developed and developing countries: an empirical investigation

The determinants of non-life insurance expenditure in a panel data set covering 36 developed countries and 31 developing countries for the period 2000–2011 are analysed. Results of our instrumental variable analysis indicate that economic freedom, income, bank development, urbanization, culture and law systems are the key drivers of the non-life insurance expenditure across countries. However, their impacts differ significantly between the groups of developed and developing countries, suggesting that the heterogeneity among countries in terms of the level of development plays an important role. The global financial crisis is also found to influence the direction of those effects, especially in developed countries. The article yields useful policy and economic implications for governments and multinational non-life insurance companies with regard to the development of the non-life insurance sector, an important engine for economic growth and prosperity.

Spectator Handy Guide to Standard and Special Life Insurance Contracts, Non-Forfeiture Values and Actuarial Tables Useful to the Life Underwriter

Mode of access: Internet.

25th Anniversary of the Linked Life Insurance Commemorative Medal

Obverse: Inscription. Reverse: The life insurance emblem, a house with family inside, shekel coin on the roof of the house.

Gender equality in life insurance

[EN]This project is going to study the implications of the gender of an individual in the rate-setting process of life insurance. In order to do so there is a review of the continuous changes that have taken place in the national and European legislation following the enactment of the Directive 2004/113/EC, as well as its consequences from the prohibition to differentiate the premiums and benefits on the grounds of gender. In this area, the evolution of the Spanish insurance sector and the influence of the new legislation are examined. Furthermore, there is an analysis of the differences between men and women, which to some extent have a direct impact in the management and development of the life insurance companies. Finally, methods to calculate the premium and the benefits are proposed with the purpose of preventing the restrictions imposed by the Directive 2004/113/EC. In order to check the repercussions of the use of unisex tables a comparison is made between the premiums obtained for a whole life insurance by allocating the same weighing to the actuarial male and female mortality tables and those that would result if the distinction by gender were allowed.

Life Insurance and Genetics: A Comparative International Overview

La possibilité d'utiliser l'information génétique dans le domaine de l'assurance vie a soulevé des discussions autour des politiques et des législations, et ce, au niveau international, régional et national. Dans certains pays offrant des services de santé universels, le débat sur la génétique et l'assurance vie a envisagé de possibles restrictions quant à l'utilisation de l’information génétique en matière d’assurance.

Physicians, genetics and life insurance

Par contraste avec de nombreux pays européens qui ont clarifié leur position vis-à-vis la génétique et l’assurance vie, le Canada en est encore à établir la sienne. Toute initiative en ce domaine doit être basée sur une compréhension des mécanismes de l’assurance vie, de la nature de l’information génétique, de l’historique du débat au sujet de la génétique et de l’assurance vie au Canada et, finalement, des raisons pour lesquelles un groupe de travail canadien a décidé de relever le défi.

Genetics and Life Insurance in Canada: Points to Consider

Par contraste avec de nombreux pays européens qui ont clarifié leur position vis-à-vis la génétique et l’assurance vie, le Canada en est encore à établir la sienne. Toute initiative en ce domaine doit être basée sur une compréhension des mécanismes de l’assurance vie, de la nature de l’information génétique, de l’historique du débat au sujet de la génétique et de l’assurance vie au Canada et, finalement, des raisons pour lesquelles un groupe de travail canadien a décidé de relever le défi.

Genetics and Life Insurance: A Comparative Analysis

The debate surrounding the role of life insurance, the necessity of risk rating, and the notion of “acceptable discrimination” has raised questions about the larger social role of insurance. Recent developments in the field of genetics, allowing insurers to make use of genetic testing technology as a new underwriting tool, have reinvigorated this debate. This article presents a comparative study of positions taken in countries on issues in genetics and life insurance. We will analyze the 43 selected countries and comment on their potential for ensuring a more equitable access for life insurance applicants.

Quantil Hedging for telegraph markets and its applications to a pricing of equity-linked life insurance contracts

En este documento está desarrollado un modelo de mercado financiero basado en movimientos aleatorios con tiempo continuo, con velocidades constantes alternantes y saltos cuando hay cambios en la velocidad. Si los saltos en la dirección tienen correspondencia con la dirección de la velocidad del comportamiento aleatorio subyacente, con respecto a la tasa de interés, el modelo no presenta arbitraje y es completo. Se construye en detalle las estrategias replicables para opciones, y se obtiene una presentación cerrada para el precio de las opciones. Las estrategias de cubrimiento quantile para opciones son construidas. Esta metodología es aplicada al control de riesgo y fijación de precios de instrumentos de seguros.

The evolution of the Australian life insurance industry

The life insurance industry in Australia has traditionally been an important source of long term finance for both the public and private sector. However, very little historical analysis has been undertaken into an industry that constitutes a fundamental part of the economy's financial sector. The present climate of deregulation has initiated an irrevocable process of change within the industry. To comprehend the full implications of this change it is necessary to have an understanding of how the industry has evolved. This paper seeks to provide a background account of the growth of the life insurance industry in Australia highlighting the influences that have determined the structure of the industry.

Adaptation and change in the Australian life insurance industry : an historical perspective

In the wake of the deregulation of the financial sector in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s the life insurance industry has undergone a period of rapid change and reorganisation. Part of this adjustment has been the move towards the integration of financial service provision and the rise of bancassurance. This paper investigates the strategies adopted by Australian life insurers as they moved into the increasingly competitive environment triggered by the lifting of government restrictions on banking practices. It compares the approach of life insurers with that adopted in an earlier period of expansion and change. During the 1950s and 1960s an influx of foreign owned insurance companies into the Australian market precipitated the diversification of domestic life insurers into other insurance markets. The catalyst for change in both cases was the change in information costs brought about by the change in the competitive environment. The experience of the Australian life insurance market would suggest that there is a link between changing information costs and changing organisational structures. However this link is circumscribed by the institutional environment.

Control of the Australian life insurance industry: an example of regulatory externalities within the Australian financial sector 1870-1945

The regulatory environment in which the Australian life insurance industry operates has its antecedents in two major periods of legislative intervention. The first established the principle of ‘freedom with disclosure’ in the 1870s, which has since formed the basis of the regulatory approach. In the 1940s, the second refined the concept in the context of a general recognition of an interventionist approach to financial markets. It is suggested that regulation of the life insurance market in Australia came about not in response to problems associated with market failure but in reaction to external influences not directly related to conditions in the Australian life insurance industry. This was impacted not only on the timing of intervention but on the approach taken as well.