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The Limited Financing of Catastrophe Risk: An Overview

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  • Kenneth A. Froot

Abstract

This paper argues that the financial exposure of households and firms to natural catastrophe disasters is borne primarily by insurance companies. Surprisingly, insurers use reinsurance to cover only a small fraction of these exposures, yet many insurers do not have enough capital and surplus to survive medium or large disasters. In a well-functioning financial system, these risks would be more widely shared. This paper articulates eight different explanations that may lie behind the limited risk sharing, relating them both to recent industry developments and financial theory. I then examine how financial innovation can help change the equilibrium toward a more efficient outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth A. Froot, 1997. "The Limited Financing of Catastrophe Risk: An Overview," NBER Working Papers 6025, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6025
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    Cited by:

    1. Ermoliev, Y. & Ermolieva, T. & Fischer, G. & Makowski, M. & Nilsson, S. & Obersteiner, M., 2008. "Discounting, catastrophic risks management and vulnerability modeling," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 79(4), pages 917-924.
    2. Nell, Martin & Richter, Andreas, 2004. "Catastrophic events as threats to society: Private and public risk management strategies," Working Papers on Risk and Insurance 12, University of Hamburg, Institute for Risk and Insurance.
    3. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Kroszner, Randall S. & Jenn, Brian H., 2002. "Federal Terrorism Risk Insurance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(3), pages 647-657, September.
    4. Kenneth D. Jones & Chau Nguyen, 2005. "Increased Concentration in Banking: Megabanks and Their Implications for Deposit Insurance," Financial Markets, Institutions & Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(1), pages 1-42, February.
    5. Yuri Ermoliev & Tatiana Ermolieva & Guenther Fischer & Marek Makowski, 2010. "Extreme events, discounting and stochastic optimization," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 9-19, June.
    6. Pollner, John D, 2001. "Catastrophe risk management : using alternative risk financing and insurance pooling mechanisms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2560, The World Bank.
    7. Ermoliev, Yuri M. & Ermolieva, Tatiana Y. & MacDonald, Gordon J. & Norkin, Vladimir I. & Amendola, Aniello, 2000. "A system approach to management of catastrophic risks," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 452-460, April.
    8. Neil Doherty & Kent Smetters, 2005. "Moral Hazard in Reinsurance Markets," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 375-391, September.
    9. Froot, Kenneth A. & O'Connell, Paul G.J., 2008. "On the pricing of intermediated risks: Theory and application to catastrophe reinsurance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 69-85, January.
    10. Chen Yueyun & Hamwi Iskandar S., 2012. "Why Some Disaster Insurance Does not Exist," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, February.
    11. Lakdawalla, Darius & Zanjani, George, 2005. "Insurance, self-protection, and the economics of terrorism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1891-1905, September.
    12. Nell, Martin & Richter, Andreas, 2002. "Improving risk allocation through cat bonds," Working Papers on Risk and Insurance 10, University of Hamburg, Institute for Risk and Insurance.
    13. MacMinn, Richard & Richter, Andreas, 2006. "Hedging Brevity Risk with Mortality-based Securities," Discussion Papers in Business Administration 1219, University of Munich, Munich School of Management.

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    JEL classification:

    • F - International Economics

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