The main economic functions of the insurance sector are to cover financial risk and to mobilize long-term savings. The sector can also play an important role in developing the private sector and modernizing the securities market. But to play its economic and financial roles, the insurance sector...

Reinsurance is a mechanism the insurance industry uses to spread the risk it assumes from policyholders. Through reinsurance, the industry's losses are absorbed and distributed among a group of companies so that no single company is overburdened with the financial responsibility of offering...

As governments grow richer, the share of their GDP devoted to public spending rises. Public spending in the United States was 7.5 percent of GDP in 1913. It is 33 percent today. Although industrial countries spend twice as much as developing countries, government spending on goods and services...

Empirical analyses of annuities markets have been limited to a few industrial countries and restricted by data limitations. Chile provides excellent conditions for research on annuities because of the depth of its market and the availability of data. The authors use an extensive dataset on...

Most countries reforming their pension system, focus more on the accumulation phase, than on the decumulation (pay-out), because the number of beneficiaries is likely to be small initially, especially if older workers are discouraged from joining the new system. Policymakers place a priority on...

Social pension systems in most countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union face severe financial pressure. Aging populations are increasing that pressure, which stems mainly from in the%design in the %in the flaws and incompatible incentives in the systems. The authors describe the...

The authors analyze the relationship between the development of contractual savings institutions and banks'efficiency, credit, and liquidity risks. They discuss the potential mechanisms through which the development of contractual savings institutions may affect the banking sector. They show...

Contractual savings institutions - pension funds and life insurance companies - have long been important institutions in several developing countries. But, with notable exceptions, they have been weak and underdeveloped. Some of this is attributable to low levels of income in developing...

Contractual savings institutions include national provident funds, life insurance companies, private pension funds, and funded social pension insurance systems. They have long-term liabilities and stable cash flows and are therefore ideal providers of term finance, not only to government and...

The authors study the relationship between the development of contractual savings (assets of pension funds, and life insurance companies) and non-life insurance, and, the development of stock markets (market capitalization and value traded). Their contribution lies in providing time-series...