This paper studies the effects of company risk and guaranty funds on life insurance in force using company-by-state level data during the 1985-2010 period. Our primary objective is to use the variation in the timing of guaranty fund adoptions across states to identify the impact of public...

In this paper, we examine the options, challenges, and potential pitfalls in expanding the role of the private sector in providing flood insurance in the United States. This topic that has garnered considerable interest given the problems facing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). There...

In this paper, we examine the effects of state rate regulatory stringency on insurers' loss ratios at the firm level in homeowners insurance. We use several different measures of regulation per se and regulatory stringency. In one model, we use the type of state rating law as our measure of...

The severe hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 and the resulting losses are prompting insurers to reassess their risk and business strategies in Southeastern states. This article examines recent trends in the affected homeowners insurance markets and discusses how these markets are likely to...

Federal crop insurance is the largest federal property-casualty insurance program. Nominally, it is portrayed as a typical form of private property insurance. However, closer examination reveals that its structure departs significantly from conventional insurance principles and practices that...

In this paper, we evaluate state regulation of insurance markets subject to catastrophe risk and, more specifically, homeowners insurance and commercial property insurance. When insurers suffer substantial losses following a catastrophic event, pressures on property insurance markets can...

In this paper, we discuss our research on the effects of regulatory forbearance on the outcomes for high-risk and distressed property-casualty insurance companies. A fundamental question that has been examined in the extant literature is whether greater regulatory forbearance tends to increase...

Since its inception in mid-1800s, insurance regulation in the U.S. has continued to evolve in response to changing circumstances and the opportunity to take advantage of new methods and technologies. Important developments in insurance regulatory policies and practices at an international level,...