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Should the government provide insurance for catastrophes?

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  • J. David Cummins

Abstract

This paper evaluates the need for a government role in insuring natural and man-made catastrophes in the United States. Although insurance markets have been stressed by major natural catastrophes, such as Hurricane Katrina, government involvement in the market for natural catastrophe insurance should be minimized to avoid crowding-out more efficient private market solutions, such as catastrophe bonds. Instead, government should facilitate the development of the private market by reducing regulatory barriers. The National Flood Insurance Program has failed to cover most property owners exposed to floods and is facing severe financial difficulties. The program needs to be drastically revised or replaced by private market alternatives, such as federal "make available" requirements with a federal reinsurance backstop. A federal role may be appropriate to insure against mega-terrorist events. However, any program should be minimally intrusive and carry a positive premium to avoid crowding-out private market alternatives.

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  • J. David Cummins, 2006. "Should the government provide insurance for catastrophes?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 88(Jul), pages 337-380.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlrv:y:2006:i:jul:p:337-380:n:v.88no.4
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    1. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Cummins, J. David & Lewis, Christopher M. & Wei, Ran, 2004. "An empirical analysis of the economic impact of federal terrorism reinsurance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 861-898, July.
    2. J David Cummins, 2005. "Convergence in Wholesale Financial Services: Reinsurance and Investment Banking," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 30(2), pages 187-222, April.
    3. Berger, Lawrence A & Cummins, J David & Tennyson, Sharon, 1992. "Reinsurance and the Liability Insurance Crisis," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 253-272, July.
    4. Cummins, J. David & Doherty, Neil & Lo, Anita, 2002. "Can insurers pay for the "big one"? Measuring the capacity of the insurance market to respond to catastrophic losses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(2-3), pages 557-583, March.
    5. J. Cummins & Neil Doherty, 2002. "Capitalization of the Property-Liability Insurance Industry: Overview," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 21(1), pages 5-14, February.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Beer, Simone & Braun, Alexander & Marugg, Andrin, 2019. "Pricing industry loss warranties in a Lévy–Frailty framework," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 171-181.
    3. Wu, Yang-Che, 2020. "Equilibrium in natural catastrophe insurance market under disaster-resistant technologies, financial innovations and government interventions," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 116-128.
    4. Wu, Yang-Che, 2015. "Reexamining the feasibility of diversification and transfer instruments on smoothing catastrophe risk," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 54-66.
    5. Radoslav Raykov, 2015. "Catastrophe insurance equilibrium with correlated claims," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 78(1), pages 89-115, January.
    6. Bixter, Michael T. & Luhmann, Christian C., 2014. "Shared losses reduce sensitivity to risk: A laboratory study of moral hazard," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 63-73.
    7. Charpentier, Arthur & Le Maux, Benoît, 2014. "Natural catastrophe insurance: How should the government intervene?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1-17.
    8. Howard Kunreuther, 2006. "Reflections on U.S. Disaster Insurance Policy for the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 12449, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Howard C. Kunreuther & Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan, 2007. "Evaluating The Effectiveness of Terrorism Risk Financing Solutions," NBER Working Papers 13359, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Goodell, John W., 2020. "COVID-19 and finance: Agendas for future research," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    11. Petrović, Zdravko & Njegomir, Vladimir & Počuča, Sara, 2013. "Characteristics Of Agricultural Insurance: The Case Of Countries Of Former Yugoslavia Region," Economics of Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Menna Hassan & Nourhan Sakr & Arthur Charpentier, 2022. "Government Intervention in Catastrophe Insurance Markets: A Reinforcement Learning Approach," Papers 2207.01010, arXiv.org.
    13. Sawada, Yasuyuki & Takasaki, Yoshito, 2017. "Natural Disaster, Poverty, and Development: An Introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 2-15.
    14. Lorilee A. Medders & Steven L. Schwarcz, 2022. "Securitizing pandemic‐risk insurance," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 25(4), pages 551-583, December.
    15. Bagstad, Kenneth J. & Stapleton, Kevin & D'Agostino, John R., 2007. "Taxes, subsidies, and insurance as drivers of United States coastal development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2-3), pages 285-298, August.
    16. J. David Cummins, 2008. "CAT Bonds and Other Risk‐Linked Securities: State of the Market and Recent Developments," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 23-47, March.
    17. Geoffrey Heal & Howard Kunreuther, 2010. "Environment and Energy: Catastrophic Liabilities from Nuclear Power Plants," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring and Managing Federal Financial Risk, pages 235-257, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Fitzpatrick, Katie & Greenhalgh-Stanley, Nadia & Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2019. "Food deserts and diet-related health outcomes of the elderly," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Thomas Holzheu & Ginger Turner, 2018. "The Natural Catastrophe Protection Gap: Measurement, Root Causes and Ways of Addressing Underinsurance for Extreme Events†," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(1), pages 37-71, January.
    20. Thomas G. Koch, 2017. "The Shifting Shape of Risk: Endogenous Market Failure for Insurance," Risks, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, January.
    21. Helmut Gründl & Danjela Guxha & Anastasia Kartasheva & Hato Schmeiser, 2021. "Insurability of pandemic risks," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 863-902, December.

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