INSURANCE THEORY AND CHALLENGES FACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF MICROINSURANCE MARKETS

Microinsurance institutions and instruments have developed rapidly over the last decade, with policies covering tens of millions at the base of the economic pyramid. Ranging from simple policies providing life or health insurance to complex policies covering catastrophic risks for small landholders, it is a market with proven potential that demands closer attention. This paper provides a review of the nascent academic literature and then suggests some critical elements of insurance theory that may help us understand the challenges facing microinsurance markets and how these markets can better serve the needs of their customers. Although the basic theory is well known, application to microinsurance markets reveals interesting variations on known results.Microinsurance, modeling

Financial Market Development: Issues, Strategies and Inter-American Development Bank Group Activities

Throughout the 1990s, the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group) has provided significant support for financial sector reform in Latin America and the Caribbean. The reforms have been aimed at making member countries more attractive to private investors, promoting economic growth, increasing competitiveness, and promoting integration with the world markets. This report looks at the restructuring and development of financial markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. Part one looks at the issues which will need to be addressed by the countries of the Region as they move forward in a second generation of financial reforms: the legal and regulatory framework, the information environment, the development of institutional investors (insurance markets, private pension funds, mutual funds), the need for increased innovation in financial market instruments, and the capital market infrastructure. Part Two presents Bank's strategic approach to support the development of financial and securities markets in the region.

Policy-Based Finance and Market Alternatives: East Asian Lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean

This book contains a selection of the major presentations from the conference: "Policy-Based Finance and Alternatives for Financial Market Development" held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in early 1996. It explores the generally successful East Asian experiences with policy-based finance and contrasts these with the less successful, directed credit programs undertaken by Latin American and Caribbean governments in their attempts to support specific sectors of their respective economies. This volume extracts universal lessons that are applicable to emerging markets and applies them to the market approach underway in most of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean