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Single-year and multi-year insurance policies in a competitive market

Author

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  • Paul Kleindorfer
  • Howard Kunreuther
  • Chieh Ou-Yang

Abstract

This paper examines the demand and supply of annual and multi-year insurance contracts with respect to protection against a catastrophic risk in a competitive market. Insurers who offer annual policies can cancel policies at the end of each year and change the premium in the following year. Multi-year insurance has a fixed annual price for each year and no cancellations are permitted at the end of any given year. Homeowners are identical with respect to their exposure to the hazard. Each homeowner determines whether or not to purchase an annual or multi-year contract so as to maximize her expected utility. The competitive equilibrium consists of a set of prices where homeowners who are not very risk averse decide to be uninsured. Other individuals demand either single-year or multi-year policies depending on their degree of risk aversion and the premiums charged by insurers for each type of policy. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Kleindorfer & Howard Kunreuther & Chieh Ou-Yang, 2012. "Single-year and multi-year insurance policies in a competitive market," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 51-78, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jrisku:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:51-78
    DOI: 10.1007/s11166-012-9148-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Howard Kunreuther & Erwann Michel-Kerjan, 2015. "Demand for fixed-price multi-year contracts: Experimental evidence from insurance decisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 171-194, October.
    2. Thomas Dudek & Eric R. Ulm & Ilan Noy, 2021. "Demand for Multi-Year Catastrophe Insurance Contracts: Experimental Evidence for Mitigating the Insurance Gap," CESifo Working Paper Series 9442, CESifo.
    3. Thomas Holzheu & Ginger Turner, 2018. "The Natural Catastrophe Protection Gap: Measurement, Root Causes and Ways of Addressing Underinsurance for Extreme Events†," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(1), pages 37-71, January.
    4. Liu, Tongxin & Shao, Jianfang & Wang, Xihui, 2022. "Funding allocations for disaster preparation considering catastrophe insurance," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Maria Osipenko & Zhiwei Shen & Martin Odening, 2015. "Is there a demand for multi-year crop insurance?," Agricultural Finance Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 75(1), pages 92-102, May.
    6. Mol, Jantsje M. & Botzen, W. J. Wouter & Blasch, Julia E., 2020. "Risk reduction in compulsory disaster insurance: Experimental evidence on moral hazard and financial incentives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Mohor, Guilherme Samprogna & Mendiondo, Eduardo Mario, 2017. "Economic indicators of hydrologic drought insurance under water demand and climate change scenarios in a Brazilian context," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 66-78.
    8. Selene Perazzini, 2020. "Public-Private Partnership in the Management of Natural Disasters: A Review," Papers 2006.05845, arXiv.org.
    9. Ying-Erh Chen & Barry K Goodwin, 2015. "Policy Design of Multi-Year Crop Insurance Contracts with Partial Payments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Mol, Jantsje M. & Botzen, W.J. Wouter & Blasch, Julia E., 2020. "Behavioral motivations for self-insurance under different disaster risk insurance schemes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 967-991.
    11. Botzen, W.J. Wouter & de Boer, Joop & Terpstra, Teun, 2013. "Framing of risk and preferences for annual and multi-year flood insurance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 357-375.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Insurance; Multi-year policies; Catastrophic risk; Risk aversion; D80; G22; Q54;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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