Demographic risk, i.e., the risk that life tables change in a nondeterministic way, is a serious threat to the financial stability of an insurance company having underwritten life insurance and annuity business. The inverse influence of changes in mortality laws on the market value of life...

Aggregate mortality risk - the risk that the mortality trend in a population changes in a nondeterministic way - and its implications for corporate decisions has recently been the subject of lively scientific discussion. We show that aggregate mortality risk is also a key determinant for...

Much of the industrialized world is undergoing a significant demographic shift, placing strain on public pension systems. Policymakers are responding with pension system reforms that put more weight on privately managed retirement funds. One concern with these changes is the effect on individual...

Motivated by a recent demographic study establishing a link between macroeconomic fluctuations and the mortality index kt in the Lee-Carter model, we assess the impact of macroeconomic fluctuations on the solvency of a life insurance company. Liabilities in our stochastic simulation framework...

Lack of transparency in securitization transactions significantly contributed to the severe financial crisis of 20072009. To increase transparency we propose a new mechanism: financial claims with fingerprints. They would allow market participants at each stage of the securitization process to...

Lack of transparency in securitization transactions significantly contributed to thesevere financial crisis of 2007–2009. To increase transparency we—based on arecent idea by Markowitz (2009)—propose an incentive compatible mechanismfor future securitization transactions: financial claims...

Much of the industrialized world is undergoing a significantdemographic shift, placing strain on public pension systems. Policymakers are responding with pension system reforms that put more weight on privately managed retirement funds. One concern with these changes is the effect on individual...

In comparing an immediate life annuity with a payout-equivalent investment fundpayout plan (self-annuitization), research to date has focused mainly on shortfallprobabilities of self-annuitization. As an exception, Schmeiser and Post (2005)propose a family strategy where the chances of...

Much of the industrialized world is undergoing a significant demographic shift, placing strain on public pension systems. Policymakers are responding with pension system reforms that put more weight on privately managed retirement funds. One concern with these changes is the effect on individual...