Significant Factors of Aviation Insurance and Risk Management Strategy: An Empirical Study of Taiwanese Airline Carriers

Aviation insurance premiums have become a heavy burden for the airline industry since September 11, 2001. Although the industry must constantly balance its operations between profitability and safety, the reality is that airlines are in the business of making money. Therefore, their ability to reduce cost and manage risk is a key factor for success. Unlike past research, which used subjective judgment methods, this study applied quantitative historical data (1999–2000) and gray relation analysis to identify the primary factors influencing ratemaking for aviation insurance premiums. An empirical study of six airlines in Taiwan was conducted to determine these factors and to analyze the management strategies used to deal with them. Results showed that the loss experience and performance of individual airlines were the key elements associated with aviation insurance premiums paid by each airline. By identifying and understanding the primary factors influencing ratemaking for aviation insurance, airlines will better understand their relative operational strengths and weaknesses, and further help top management identify areas for further improvement. Knowledge of these factors combined with effective risk management strategies, may result in lower premiums and operating costs for airline companies.     

Flood Catastrophe Model for Designing Optimal Flood Insurance Program: Estimating Location‐Specific Premiums in the Netherlands

As flood risks grow worldwide, a well‐designed insurance program engaging various stakeholders becomes a vital instrument in flood risk management. The main challenge concerns the applicability of standard approaches for calculating insurance premiums of rare catastrophic losses. This article focuses on the design of a flood‐loss‐sharing program involving private insurance based on location‐specific exposures. The analysis is guided by a developed integrated catastrophe risk management (ICRM) model consisting of a GIS‐based flood model and a stochastic optimization procedure with respect to location‐specific risk exposures. To achieve the stability and robustness of the program towards floods with various recurrences, the ICRM uses stochastic optimization procedure, which relies on quantile‐related risk functions of a systemic insolvency involving overpayments and underpayments of the stakeholders. Two alternative ways of calculating insurance premiums are compared: the robust derived with the ICRM and the traditional average annual loss approach. The applicability of the proposed model is illustrated in a case study of a Rotterdam area outside the main flood protection system in the Netherlands. Our numerical experiments demonstrate essential advantages of the robust premiums, namely, that they: (1) guarantee the program's solvency under all relevant flood scenarios rather than one average event; (2) establish a tradeoff between the security of the program and the welfare of locations; and (3) decrease the need for other risk transfer and risk reduction measures.     

Insurer Competition in Health Care Markets

The impact of insurer competition on welfare, negotiated provider prices, and premiums in the U.S. private health care industry is theoretically ambiguous. Reduced competition may increase the premiums charged by insurers and their payments made to hospitals. However, it may also strengthen insurers' bargaining leverage when negotiating with hospitals, thereby generating offsetting cost decreases. To understand and measure this trade‐off, we estimate a model of employer‐insurer and hospital‐insurer bargaining over premiums and reimbursements, household demand for insurance, and individual demand for hospitals using detailed California admissions, claims, and enrollment data. We simulate the removal of both large and small insurers from consumers' choice sets. Although consumer welfare decreases and premiums typically increase, we find that premiums can fall upon the removal of a small insurer if an employer imposes effective premium constraints through negotiations with the remaining insurers. We also document substantial heterogeneity in hospital price adjustments upon the removal of an insurer, with renegotiated price increases and decreases of as much as 10% across markets.     

赔付率约束下的中国保险公司效率与全要素生产率研究

运用SBM(slack-based measure)方向性距离函数分别计算了赔付率约束下的2006-2016年中国境内的财产保险公司、人身保险公司的经营无效率值,并对无效率值的来源进行分解。在此基础上运用Luenberger生产率指数计算出全要素生产率及其分解项,对中资、外资保险公司的经营效率、全要素生产率及其分解项进行了对比分析。结果表明:财险业的中资大型公司经营效率最高,人身险业的中资公司经营效率明显高于外资公司;投资收益无效率是造成中小型人身险公司和中小型财产险公司无效率的最主要原因;财险业大型公司的全要素生产率低于中小型公司,而人身险业外资公司的全要素生产率明显高于中资公司。     

An agent-based model for evaluating reforms of the National Flood Insurance Program: A benchmarked model applied to Jamaica Bay,NYC

Coastal flood risk is expected to increase as a result of climate change effects, such as sea level rise, and socioeconomic growth. To support policymakers in making adaptation decisions, accurate flood risk assessments that account for the influence of complex adaptation processes on the developments of risks are essential. In this study, we integrate the dynamic adaptive behavior of homeowners within a flood risk modeling framework. Focusing on building-level adaptation and flood insurance, the agent-based model (DYNAMO) is benchmarked with empirical data for New York City, USA. The model simulates the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and frequently proposed reforms to evaluate their effectiveness. The model is applied to a case study of Jamaica Bay, NY. Our results indicate that risk-based premiums can improve insurance penetration rates and the affordability of insurance compared to the baseline NFIP market structure. While a premium discount for disaster risk reduction incentivizes more homeowners to invest in dry-floodproofing measures, it does not significantly improve affordability. A low interest rate loan for financing risk-mitigation investments improves the uptake and affordability of dry-floodproofing measures. The benchmark and sensitivity analyses demonstrate how the behavioral component of our model matches empirical data and provides insights into the underlying theories and choices that autonomous agents make.     

Malpractice insurance rates reach boiling point. Physicians burned by lawyers, lawsuits and jury awards

Costs of medical malpractice insurance are soaring. Major insurers are refusing to write policies. And doctors are struggling to pay their premiums. Find out what's behind the insurance crisis.     

Equitable Taxation and the Provision of Health Insurance Subsidies

Current U.S. income tax laws allow many taxpayers to exclude from taxable income part or all of the cost of acquiring health insurance through an employer‐sponsored benefit plan. This favorable tax treatment generally applies regardless of whether the employer or employee actually pays the health insurance premiums. We describe the effects of this tax policy on the U.S. tax system's horizontal and vertical equity. We also explain how taxpayers covered by employer‐sponsored plans are significantly subsidized by the government in acquiring health insurance, whereas taxpayers who acquire health insurance by other means or who are not covered by health insurance at all receive no such government assistance. We conclude that any prospective health‐care policy initiatives, including modifications to the 2010 health‐care reforms, should contemplate both the horizontal and vertical equity of the tax treatment of health insurance premiums.     

The need for a corporate strategy on risk management and risk transfer

Accidents happen to companies every day, but only some are catastrophic. Minimising them is more than just insurance; the correct strategy is risk management and involves the development of a Disaster Plan and a Crisis Management Plan. Sue Braithwaite explores the setting-up and organisation of such plans which involve, among other things, the interrelationship and co-ordination of risks, responsibilities, back-up contact, support and communications, testing and insurance. She insists that a company's long-term viability must include a developed strategy on the management of risk, loss prevention and control and damage containment.     

Strategic management of consumer services

A period of more rigorous strategic management is under way in consumer service businesses. In banking, insurance, lodging, media, retailing, housing, restaurants and education, more growth must come from competitive share shift. This paper b shows the need for a different set of strategies to win in services than have been shaped in the product business context. Specific illustrations show how leading U.S. consumer service companies are building strategic advantage while also improving the value of their business.     

Insurability and Mitigation of Flood Losses in Private Households in Germany

In Germany, flood insurance is provided by private insurers as a supplement to building or contents insurance. This article presents the results of a survey of insurance companies with regard to eligibility conditions for flood insurance changes after August 2002, when a severe flood caused 1.8 billion euro of insured losses in the Elbe and the Danube catchment areas, and the general role of insurance in flood risk management in Germany. Besides insurance coverage, governmental funding and public donations played an important role in loss compensation after the August 2002 flood. Therefore, this article also analyzes flood loss compensation, risk awareness, and mitigation in insured and uninsured private households. Insured households received loss compensation earlier. They also showed slightly better risk awareness and mitigation strategies. Appropriate incentives should be combined with flood insurance in order to strengthen future private flood loss mitigation. However, there is some evidence that the surveyed insurance companies do little to encourage precautionary measures. To overcome this problem, flood hazards and mitigation strategies should be better communicated to both insurance companies and property owners.     

Effective measures for reducing environmental insurance costs

Can pollution prevention (P²) management practices result in lower premiums paid for business insurance? In theory, P² activities on the part of the insured can reduce the risk of pollution-related claims—but this depends on a competetive insurance market. What follows is an examination of two forms of business insurance—environmental insurance and worker's compensation insurance— and some cases where lower costs were realized.     

Liability crisis: the insurer's point of view.

Insurers now find themselves caught in the negative results of business and investment decisions made during times of high interest rates. High premiums and low coverage have been the tactic for recovery, but it ill-behooves insurance buyers to now forget that they benefited from that period of low premiums and easy access to insurance.     

大股东与经营者合谋行为及法律约束措施

大股东侵害中小股东利益的行为是一种大股东与经营者合谋牟取私下收益的行为,在合谋状态下,大股东的监督检查强度高于非合谋状态.大股东与经营者的合谋行为导致中小股东收入水平下降,它不仅把中小股东应得的利益转移到大股东手中;而且还会降低公司的收入水平.要求大股东承担诚信义务是规范大股东行为的最主要法律措施.     

Are People Willing to Buy Natural Disaster Insurance in China? Risk Awareness,Insurance Acceptance,and Willingness to Pay

After the Wenchuan earthquake (magnitude 7.9, May 12, 2008), intensive debates on how China should establish a natural disaster insurance system were initiated among researchers, policymakers, and insurance professionals. Our focus was the social aspects of disaster insurance, explored in China through a nationwide survey. Our questionnaires investigated people's risk awareness, insurance acceptance, their opinions on governmental measures for disaster management, and their willingness to pay for disaster house insurance. We analyzed the results at both regional and individual scales. We found that the integrated hazard index and respondents’ experience of insurance (considered objective factors), and their opinions on the importance of insurance and government responsibility (considered subjective factors) showed strong correlation with the regional overall acceptance of disaster insurance. An individual's decision to participate highly depended on his/her experience of both insurance and disaster and his/her opinion on the importance of insurance as a coping mechanism. Respondents from poverty‐stricken or less‐developed counties were not necessarily more reluctant to accept natural disaster insurance, though they exhibited relatively lower ability to afford insurance. In general, respondents had correct perceptions of natural disasters in their areas; however, people from regions with a greater multihazard threat showed less willingness to accept disaster insurance because they tended to expect the government to undertake to cover losses and considered insurance to be less important. People's willingness to pay for an assumed disaster house insurance was also investigated and analyzed. We consequently discuss the policy implications for developing a disaster insurance system in China.     

Build-operate-transfer Outsourcing Contracts in Services – Boon or Bane to Emerging Market Vendor Firms?

Build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracting has been widely used in the engineering and construction industry and has recently spread into the service industry domains. Notably, service provider firms from emerging markets, India in particular, are now offering BOT outsourcing contracts in which the client firms are allotted call options, i.e. the right, but not the obligation, to transfer pre-specified assets from the service provider. As such, BOT outsourcing contracts seems to be an interesting contractual novelty that combines the advantages of outsourced and captive offshoring operations. In this paper we investigate under which circumstances a BOT outsourcing contract (i.e. a contract where the client firm exercises its call option) is beneficial, or the opposite, to the emerging market vendor firm. Whether BOT outsourcing contracts are boon or bane to an emerging market vendor basically hinges, we submit, on its internal diffusion of client-specific knowledge and capabilities prior to the execution of the call option.     

Insurance exposure and investment risks: Management and regulatory implications

By exposing itself to greater risks on invested funds the company can also increase its expected returns. Because there are risks involved with both the insurance and investment operations, a major problem for an insurance company is to determine just how the two types of risks are to be balanced. In an earlier paper the authors dealt with the relationships among growth in premiums written, insurance loss and investment return. In this paper the questions are revisited from a policyholder and regulatory point of view, and suggestions are made concerning the reaction of the firm under various postures the management may take towards risk.     

Rolling back third-party intrusions in the practice of medicine

Formerly vaunted projections about the triumph of managed care over the provider-controlled health services industry now appear overly optimistic as consumer and provider opposition stiffens. Popular dislike of managed care and purchaser disenchantment over its failure to deliver on promises to control health insurance spending have created a strategic opening for rolling back third-party interference in medical practice. Employer frustration over rising premiums, compounded by workers' antagonism toward benefits restrictions and worry over the loss of government protection against managed care litigation, signals a radical overhaul in the way health insurance is offered. For many employers, substituting defined contribution for defined benefit plans and transferring ownership rights and responsibilities to employees is an attractive solution. Along with the growth of consumer-friendly health plans and a relaxation of onerous managed care practices, physicians can look forward to a restored doctor-patient relationship. This article identifies the forces pushing health care purchasers to adopt defined contribution plans and discusses the implications of such a movement on the physician-patient relationship.     

考虑保险机构参与的重大工程风险管理激励模型

重大工程建设过程往往面临着巨大的风险暴露，保险是重要的风险处置手段，承接保险合同的保险机构和业主一起成为风险损失的承担主体。考虑到保险机构拥有极强参与现场风险管理的动能，本文基于委托代理理论构建了保险机构介入下业主与承包商的激励模型，分别讨论了共同代理和独家代理两种模式下各方的策略与收益。研究结果表明：共同代理模式下，保险机构实现了主动风险管理，业主和保险机构的收益均得以提高，业主愿意提供比独家代理模式更高的激励系数；承包商在共同代理模式下将采取更为积极的风险管理努力，同时其机会主义行为得到了抑制；业主的最优激励系数受项目特征、承包商自身因素以及外界环境的不确定性共同作用。     

The Emergence of Flood Insurance in Canada: Navigating Institutional Uncertainty

Flood insurance has remained unavailable in Canada based on an assessment that it lacks economic viability. In response to Canada's costliest flood event to date in 2013, the Canadian insurance industry has started to develop a framework to expand existing property insurance to cover flood damage. Research on flood insurance has overlooked why and how insurance systems transition to expand insurance coverage without evidence of economic viability. This article will address this gap through a case study on the emergence of flood insurance in Canada, and the approach to its expansion. Between 2013 and 2016, insurance industry officials representing over 60% of premiums collected in Canada were interviewed. These interviews revealed that flood insurance is being expanded in response to institutional pressure, specifically external stakeholder expectations that the insurance industry will adopt a stronger role in managing flood risk through coverage of flood damage. Further evidence of this finding is explored by assessing the emergence of a unique flood insurance model that involves a risk‐adjusted and optional product along with an expansion of government policy supporting flood risk mitigation. This approach attempts to balance industry concerns about economic viability with institutional pressure to reduce flood risk through insurance. This analysis builds on existing research by providing the first scholarly analysis of flood insurance in Canada, important “empirical” teeth to existing conceptual analysis on the availability of flood insurance, and the influence of institutional factors on risk analysis within the insurance sector.     

Cost shifting: the final straw in federalization of health care

While cost controls applied by Medicare and indemnity insurance programs initially helped curtail abusive medical billing practices, creative billing techniques have since resulted in runaway medical costs and rising insurance premiums. Employers have been forced to increase employee's contributions to health care by increasing deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance or by simply dropping health care benefits. If National Health Insurance comes to pass, and that is a cry now coming from major employers, it will be followed in time by federalization of all health care delivery systems, including Workers' Compensation. It is the providers who shift their fees into Workers' Compensation, which pays from the first dollar, who will cause the business community to petition Washington for relief. It will claim the need for cost controls in Workers' Compensation to keep American business competitive in world markets.