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A Formal Approach: Capital Market Failures

Joseph E. Stiglitz, José Antonio Ocampo, Shari Spiegel, Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, and Deepak Nayyar

in Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development

Underlying the failure of CML was an overly simple model that assumed efficient and complete markets. There are, however, problems with externalities and weak or absent insurance markets, especially ... More

Underlying the failure of CML was an overly simple model that assumed efficient and complete markets. There are, however, problems with externalities and weak or absent insurance markets, especially in developing countries, that these models did not consider. This chapter focuses on major categories of ‘market failures’. It examines the direct externalities associated with capital flows, and looks at how capital market liberalization can exacerbate the problems posed by coordination failures and broader macroeconomic failures. It also looks at the effect of imperfect information on investor behavior and the market failures associated with capital markets. It concludes with a discussion of the major objectives of government intervention.Less

The Price and Value of Children: The Case of Children’s Insurance in the United States

Viviana A. Zelizer

in Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy

This chapter considers the development of children's insurance. It argues that the removal of children from the “cash nexus” at the turn of the past century was part of a cultural process of ... More

This chapter considers the development of children's insurance. It argues that the removal of children from the “cash nexus” at the turn of the past century was part of a cultural process of sacralization of children's lives. It uses the term “sacralization” in the sense of objects being invested with moral and religious meaning. While in the nineteenth century the market value of children was culturally acceptable, the new normative ideal of the child as an exclusively emotional and moral asset precluded instrumental or fiscal considerations. The primacy of children's qualitative, intrinsic value was affirmed by forsaking any immediate quantitative money value. The chapter analyzes historical data on the controversial development of children's insurance between 1875 and the early decades of the twentieth century as a specific measure of the radical transformation in the cultural meaning of childhood.Less

Australia and New Zealand: A Tradition Continued—Creating a Domestic Insurance Market

Monica J. Keneley

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter discusses the development of the insurance industry in Australia and New Zealand. In tracing the history of insurance and reinsurance markets in these countries, four major turning ... More

This chapter discusses the development of the insurance industry in Australia and New Zealand. In tracing the history of insurance and reinsurance markets in these countries, four major turning points are identified. The first turning point, towards the end of the 1890s, was distinguished by the introduction of a tariff system, which stabilized general insurance markets and influenced their growth over the next sixty years. The second turning point occurred during the 1950s, when an increase in the numbers of overseas and domestic competitors created the foundations of the modern industry. The third point, occurring during the 1970s, was characterized by a period of destabilization in the industry and the breakdown of tariff autonomy. The fourth and final phase occurred in the 1990s, when financial sector deregulation paved the way for structural change in financial and insurance industries, leading to a greater degree of integration with international markets and the emergence of global financial services institutions.Less

Switzerland: Insurance and The Need to Export

Martin Lengwiler

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter traces the history of the Swiss insurance industry. It is remarkable that Switzerland today is one of the centres of the global insurance market given that the Swiss insurance industry ... More

This chapter traces the history of the Swiss insurance industry. It is remarkable that Switzerland today is one of the centres of the global insurance market given that the Swiss insurance industry developed later than those of many other European countries and is largely the product of the twentieth century. Until the end of the 1850s, the Swiss insurance market had scarcely been opened up and was almost exclusively in the hands of foreign, mainly French, British, and German, companies. Despite the protectionism that dominated the earlier parts of the last century, the Swiss insurers were some of the most successful international players. In the post-war period, the Swiss market came to be seen by insurers as unique, with Swiss insurance companies deriving between one-third and one-half of their premium income from abroad.Less

The Structure and Regulation of Insurance Markets

Peter d. Spencer

in The Structure and Regulation of Financial Markets

Insurance markets are different and special in many ways compared to other financial markets. From their informational structure, the purchaser or prospective insured or applicant is more likely to ... More

Insurance markets are different and special in many ways compared to other financial markets. From their informational structure, the purchaser or prospective insured or applicant is more likely to know more about their own risk characteristics than the insurer. Unlike other markets, information advantage is held by suppliers, who have more idea regarding the product quality than the buyer does. This chapter focuses on insurance products, and in this type of market there is usually a two-way information asymmetry. The insurer knows more about the insurance products, while the client/applicant knows more about the risk of the thing insured than the insurer. The chapter also discusses different types of insurance models. Regulation of insurance markets is also provided, so as to solve the information problem affecting the insurance services. The chapter concludes with the market structure of insurance markets and the prudential regulation required by the governments of countries with such a type of market.Less

Italy: Building on a Long Insurance Heritage

Giandomenico Piluso

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter traces the history of the Italian insurance industry. The fall of the Italian economy from its central position in the sixteenth century relegated it from the areas of strongest economic ... More

This chapter traces the history of the Italian insurance industry. The fall of the Italian economy from its central position in the sixteenth century relegated it from the areas of strongest economic growth in Europe. This contrasted strongly with the innovative capacity of both the Italian insurance and credit markets during their period of primacy in the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Italy was also an exception in the international arena. Early forms of insurance and associated instruments had already been developed in Imperial Rome. Subsequently, the first marine insurance and reinsurance contracts were drawn up in Genoa in the mid-fourteenth century. However, Italy's supremacy in this area vanished rapidly during the country's economic marginalization after the sixteenth century. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, insurance companies began to be established in various cities that triggered a slow and gradual convergence of the Italian insurance market with the more dynamic French, German, and Austrian markets.Less

Korea: Insurance in a Tiger Market

Duol Kim and Myung Hwi Lee

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter examines the history of the Korean insurance industry. The Korean insurance market had become the tenth largest in the world by 2008, with insurance premiums amounting to approximately ... More

This chapter examines the history of the Korean insurance industry. The Korean insurance market had become the tenth largest in the world by 2008, with insurance premiums amounting to approximately USD 90.6 billion. Considering the fact that even until the middle of the nineteenth century there was no modern concept of insurance, such growth is remarkable. The chapter shows how the Korean insurance market has achieved such a rapid expansion and suggests ways in which the insurance market will develop in the future.Less

Psychological Barriers

Robert J. Shiller

in Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society's Largest Economic Risks

One reaction to proposals for new markets is that the general public will not want to deal in them, because of some psychological inability to appreciate the benefits that the risk management may ... More

One reaction to proposals for new markets is that the general public will not want to deal in them, because of some psychological inability to appreciate the benefits that the risk management may offer—such a reaction is often given by people in the futures and options industry, who have seen many innovative contracts fail. The general public, it is asserted, will not trade directly in such futures, and if the reason they will not is that they do not appreciate the benefits of risk management, then it may be difficult for retailers of risk‐management services to repackage the contracts in a form that will interest them. However, the general public, including both individuals and firms, does use some risk‐management services, notably insurance policies—the insurance industry has not failed to market risk‐management policies to the general public, rather, their success has been highly variable. This chapter investigates whether the macro markets proposed by the book resemble the life insurance policies (for which there is a ready market), or whether they more resemble the disability or flood insurance markets or farmers’ hedging markets. This is done by analysing the psychological literature on demand for insurance. The issue of promoting proper public use of macro markets (by public education and proper product design) is also discussed.Less

India: From a Colonial Outpost to a Leading Market

G. Balachandran

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter traces the history of the Indian insurance industry. India is considered to be one of the pioneers for the introduction of ‘market insurance’ in Asia. Already in the 1790s British ... More

This chapter traces the history of the Indian insurance industry. India is considered to be one of the pioneers for the introduction of ‘market insurance’ in Asia. Already in the 1790s British insurers operated in India through ‘agency houses’ that, besides insurance, sold a curious portfolio of goods that reportedly included elephants. The East India Company also insured its cargoes through insurance offices in India. The first insurance company to be incorporated in India was by common consent the Oriental Life Insurance Company, founded by a Scotsman in Calcutta in 1818, with funds from three Indian businessmen.Less

Real Estate and Other Markets

Robert J. Shiller

in Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society's Largest Economic Risks

There are other income factors, besides the aggregate national income and labour income factors discussed in Ch. 4, that contribute as much uncertainty to the incomes of individuals and organizations ... More

There are other income factors, besides the aggregate national income and labour income factors discussed in Ch. 4, that contribute as much uncertainty to the incomes of individuals and organizations as do many risks currently traded in financial markets. If those who retail insurance policies against risks of changes in values of claims on incomes or service flows are to be able to tailor their insurance to the various exposures that their different clients have to these risks, they will want to layoff in hedging markets the risks of changes in these income factors that influence them because they are providing the insurance policies. This chapter considers some of the most salient of these other markets: real estate, unincorporated business, and privately held corporations, consumer and producer price index futures, agriculture, and art and collectibles. It also presents some ideas on systematic approaches to finding other markets, including modelling the tendency for co‐movement of incomes and inferring the underlying factors, i.e. looking for the major risk factors to incomes for which new markets would be most useful.Less

United Arab Emirates: Economic Boom and Insurance

Frauke Heard-Bey

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter traces the history of the insurance industry in the United Arab Emirates. The oil-exporting countries of the Gulf all have a very brief history of exposure to the concept of modern ... More

This chapter traces the history of the insurance industry in the United Arab Emirates. The oil-exporting countries of the Gulf all have a very brief history of exposure to the concept of modern insurance. Among them the United Arab Emirates (UAE) provides the most arresting example of a quantum leap from a poverty-stricken society to a business environment, where assets worth billions of dollars need to be insured. There are currently fifty-eight insurance companies and 170 brokers operating in the two main population centres, the capital of the UAE Abu Dhabi, the business hub Dubai and in the five smaller emirates. The acceleration over the last four decades of public and private economic activities in the UAE necessitated and facilitated the establishment of an insurance industry, in which national companies now outnumber the foreign ones. The institution by federal and regional governments of an increasing number of mandatory insurances furthered the recent growth of this market.Less

Spain: International Influence on The Domestic Insurance Market

Jerònia Pons Pons

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

This chapter traces the history of the Spanish insurance industry. One distinguishing characteristic of the Spanish insurance market has been the continuing influence of foreign companies. Whilst ... More

This chapter traces the history of the Spanish insurance industry. One distinguishing characteristic of the Spanish insurance market has been the continuing influence of foreign companies. Whilst elsewhere the level of foreign investment generally decreased heavily as the domestic insurance industry developed, in Spain by 1940 the quota was still relatively high at over 30 per cent in life and accident insurance. It was only during the Franco era (1940–75) and the first years of the transition to democracy (1976–85) that these figures dropped to below 15 per cent. The important international insurance groups again came to the fore with the liberalization of the financial markets in the 1990s, after Spain had joined the EEC in 1986.Less

The Affordable Care Act and Commercial Health Insurance Markets: Fixing What’s Broken?

James B. Rebitzer

in The Future of Healthcare Reform In the United States

This chapter concerns the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the market for commercial health insurance. The analysis is conventional in that it considers whether and how the ACA can address ... More

This chapter concerns the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the market for commercial health insurance. The analysis is conventional in that it considers whether and how the ACA can address failures in the market for commercial health insurance. The analysis is unconventional, however, in two respects. First, it emphasizes important but often overlooked heterogeneity in commercial health insurance markets. Second, the focal insurance market failure is neither moral hazard nor adverse selection. Rather attention is focused on search frictions. Search friction–induced inefficiencies are primarily found in the small group and individual market segments, where the presence of moderate search frictions significantly increases insurer market power as well as insurance member turnover. The analysis suggests that various features of the ACA may improve efficiency by offsetting distortions arising from frictions. Specifically, there are potential gains from thinning out the right tail of the distribution of prices, simplifying search, limiting adverse selection, and encouraging investments in future health.Less

Twenty‐First‐Century Insurance Issues

Nicholas Barr

in The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State

This chapter discusses two issues that will assume increasing salience: the impact of genetic screening on insurance markets and problems of long‐term‐care insurance. Genetic screening affects the ... More

This chapter discusses two issues that will assume increasing salience: the impact of genetic screening on insurance markets and problems of long‐term‐care insurance. Genetic screening affects the viability of insurance in at least two ways: by turning risk into near‐ certainty it creates a rapidly growing group of uninsurable conditions; it also has a major bearing on the ability of individuals to obtain cover. Neither problem is new, but genetic screening greatly increases the number of people affected. Solutions will require considerable regulation of private insurers. With long‐term care, a central problem is the degree of uncertainty over a long time horizon about the probability that a person will need long‐term care. One approach to a solution is social insurance.Less

A Cautionary Warning on Healthcare Exchanges: A Plea for Deregulation

Richard A. Epstein

in The Future of Healthcare Reform In the United States

This chapter reviews regulation in the health care market under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It begins with a description of the difficulties inherent in health care insurance markets. A review of ... More

This chapter reviews regulation in the health care market under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It begins with a description of the difficulties inherent in health care insurance markets. A review of the work of Rebitzer, Taylor, and Votruba follows, which is criticized on the whole for overstating the gains from regulation. Specifically, the chapter questions Rebitzer's claims of informational advantages that the insurer has over the insured, that a high turnover rate is evidence of latent market imperfection, that a public agency has the expertise to operate successfully in this market niche, and that the proliferation of consumer health care options poses an impediment to successful market operation. The chapter suggests that restrictions on entry, mandates for minimum essential benefits, privacy regulations, and the inability of private institutions to contract out of the standard-issue terms for medical practice be removed. The chapter then cites the ways in which the ACA deviates from standard insurance principles and concludes that the government's new marketplace metaphor downplays both the massive regulations and the subsidies built in to the ACA exchanges, which negate the benefits that ordinarily derive from organizing voluntary exchanges.Less

Maghreb: Naturalizing Insurance in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia

Samir Saul

in World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network

For decades, insurance addressed the European enclave communities in North Africa and general principles were adapted to their circumstances. An appendage of Europe's market, the North African market ... More

For decades, insurance addressed the European enclave communities in North Africa and general principles were adapted to their circumstances. An appendage of Europe's market, the North African market had an international character. However, it remained narrow, its growth constrained by the poverty of the majority of the population. With decolonization, insurance, like other sectors of the economy, passed into the hands of local actors who endeavoured to indigenize it, give it a national character, and accustom the population to its use with the result that pre-independence conditions and practices would adapt to new realities. The insurance market became less international but better implanted. This chapter discusses how insurance fared under its original European customers and how it was acclimatized to the national environment. Covering more than a century of history in three countries — Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia — it is constructed around the internationalization/nationalization dichotomy. Each of the three parts focuses on specific turning points in the transformation of an international but exogenous business activity to a national economic sector.Less

Case study: insurance services

Robin C. A. White

in Workers, Establishment, and Services in the European Union

This chapter examines the way in which Community law has regulated insurance services. These have a particular significance for the United Kingdom since the British insurance market is the largest in ... More

This chapter examines the way in which Community law has regulated insurance services. These have a particular significance for the United Kingdom since the British insurance market is the largest in Europe, and the third largest in the world. The industry employs 354,000 people: 806 insurance companies are authorized on insurance business in the United Kingdom.Less

Screening

James Bergin

in Microeconomic Theory: A Concise Course

Considers the traditional screening model and covers the basic features of screening models, including pooling and separating equilibria.