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Last Resort Insurance: Wildfires and the Regulation of a Crashing Market

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Abstract

An increasing number of people are denied home insurance coverage in the private market and must instead turn to state-sponsored plans known as “Insurers of Last Resort.” This paper examines how insurers of last resort interact with the private market under increasing disaster risks. We first present a simple model of an adversely selected insurance market, highlighting that the insurer of last resort allows strict price regulation to be compatible with full insurance. We then empirically study the California non-renewal moratoriums, a regulation that forced insurers to supply insurance to current customers following wildfires in 2019 and 2020. Using quasi-random geographic variation in regulatory borders and a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the moratoriums successfully reduced company-initiated non-renewals and cancellations in the short run. The effects only lasted for one year, with insurers dropping policies as soon as the moratorium lapsed. The moratoriums had no discernible effect on participation in the State’s insurer of last resort.

Suggested Citation

  • Reid Taylor & Madeline Turland & Joakim A. Weill, 2025. "Last Resort Insurance: Wildfires and the Regulation of a Crashing Market," Working Papers 2510, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:99740
    DOI: 10.24149/wp2510
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    insurance; natural disasters; wildfires;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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