Insurance is a prominent mechanism for risk transfers. Many initiatives are looking towards private-public partnerships and new risk management instruments to provide a cushion for climate change related impacts. In order for this aspiration to be fulfilled, the insurers and institutions within which they operate need to learn about emergent risks and develop workable strategies. We explore three factors shaping the evolution of insurance practices: quantitative models of catastrophic loss, experience of catastrophic loss and outcomes of litigated cases. We use the available evidence from the USA to assess the importance of each of these factors in how the industry is evolving and hence what actual risk reductions and transfers are more likely in the USA for the forseeable future.
Author Biography
Hadi Dowlatabadi, University of British Columbia
Canada Research Chair,
Professor of Applied Mathematics, Integrated Assessment & Global Change
