This paper provides an overview of the rationale and options for federal intervention in insurance regulation. Despite a number of positive and incremental reforms throughout the past decade, several key aspects of state insurance regulation, including regulation of rates, rate classification,...

This Policy Brief provides an overview of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and perspective on some of its key provisions affecting health insurance. Following a synopsis of the main problems that confront U.S. health care and insurance, it considers the extent to which the Affordable Care Act (ACA)...

In October 1999, amidst growing concerns regarding quality of care, California became the first state to pass legislation mandating minimum specific nurse-to-patient ratios for every unit in general acute care hospitals. Although the law increased nurse staffing levels in hospitals across the...

This paper analyzes the potential unintended consequences and incentive effects of the Affordable Care Act's minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations, which are designed to guarantee that a specific percentage of health insurance premiums are spent on medical care and activities that improve...

This study provides new estimates of systematic risk and the cost of equity capital for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device sectors using data for firms with publicly-traded stock on U.S. exchanges during 2001-2005 and 2006-2008. Two frameworks are employed for estimating...

This paper provides an overview of research and debate over whether insurance poses systemic risk, with a focus on U.S. life insurance. It considers the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) process for designating nonbank financial institutions as systemically important and subject to...

Kenneth Arrow and Karl Borch published several important articles in the early 1960s that can be viewed as the beginning of modern economic analysis of insurance activity. This chapter reviews the main theoretical and empirical contributions in insurance economics since that time. The review...

This paper provides perspectives on the Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance (RLLI) project in view of theory and evidence on the economics of liability insurance and the operation and regulation of liability insurance markets. The RLLI project reflects prodigious effort by the Reporters...