Optimal Catastrophe Insurance with Multiple Catastrophes

This paper adopts a normative approach to catastrophe insurance. It addresses the question of how innovations in the design of insurance contracts could help resolve the capacity gap in the provision of insurance against natural catastrophes. It extends previous research with the same approach first by considering the case of "uncorrelated catastrophes", and second by combining the influence of catastrophes on claims amounts (severity risk) and on the probability of loss (frequency risk). We show that the menu of contracts proposed in previous research, where only one type of catastrophe is considered, is dominated by the menu of contracts proposed in this paper, taking into account the absence of correlation between catastrophes of different kinds.

Long-term risk management of nuclear waste : a real options approach

In this paper, we investigate the optimal timing for deep geological disposal of nuclear waste. Our model is based on the real options approach to investment under uncertainty. In this context, the problem is similar to the optimal exercise policy for a perpetual American spread option. The potential usefulness of such a model for actual decision-making on a sensitive issue is illustrated by some numerical simulations.risk management; optimal stopping; real and American options

Reinsurance and securitisation of life insurance risk: the impact of regulatory constraints

Large systematic risks, such as those arising from natural catastrophes, climatic changes and uncertain trends in longevity increases, have risen in prominence at a societal level and, more particularly, have become a highly relevant issue for the insurance industry. Against this background, the combination of reinsurance and capital market solutions (insurance-linked securities) has received an increasing interest. In this paper, we develop a general model of optimal risk-sharing among three representative agents – an insurer, a reinsurer and a financial investor, making a distinction between systematic and idiosyncratic risks. We focus on the impact of regulation on risk transfer, by differentiating reinsurance and securitisation in terms of their impact on reserve requirements. Our results show that different regulatory prescriptions will lead to quite different results in terms of global risk-sharing