This paper re-examines the evidence in favour of the existence of underwriting cycles in property and casualty insurance and their economical significance. Using a meta-analysis of published papers in the area of insurance economics, we show that the evidence supporting the existence of...

Pension funding rules and practice contain implicit smoothing and counter-cyclical mechanisms. We set up a stylized model to investigate whether this may give rise to tail risk, in the form of large but rare losses, when pension liabilities are imperfectly but optimally hedged by pension fund...

The tail mean–variance model was recently introduced for use in risk management and portfolio choice; it involves a criterion that focuses on the risk of rare but large losses, which is particularly important when losses have heavy-tailed distributions. If returns or losses follow a multivariate...

A new method is proposed of constructing mortality forecasts. This parameterized approach utilizes Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), based on heteroscedastic Poisson (non-additive) error structures, and using an orthonormal polynomial design matrix. Principal Component (PC) analysis is then...

This paper provides a comparative study of simulation strategies for assessing risk in mortality rate predictions and associated estimates of life expectancy and annuity values in both period and cohort frameworks.