Financing losses from catastrophic risks / Kent Smetters, David Torregrosa.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Smetters, Kent A. (Kent Andrew)

Contributor:

Torregrosa, David

United States. Congressional Budget Office

Wharton School

Series:

Working paper series (United States. Congressional Budget Office) ; 2008-09.

CBO working paper ; 2008-09

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Disaster insurance--Finance--Government policy--United States.

Disaster insurance.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ii, 38 pages)

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Congressional Budget Office, [2008]

Summary:

Catastrophe insurance helps spread risks and increases the ability of policyholders and the economy to recover from both natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Government policies, however, may unintentionally limit the role of the private sector in insuring against catastrophic losses. Several such policies at both the state and the federal level reduce the amount of private capital supplied to insure or hedge against catastrophic risks. One reason is that those policies often become outdated as markets innovate. Policymakers have several different options to increase private risk-bearing capacity and improve the effectiveness of federal involvement. The benefits and potential costs of four options are examined: an optional federal charter for insurers that would preempt states regulation of rates; regulatory reform of capital markets risk transfer mechanisms that substitute for reinsurance; changes in the taxation of reserves held by insurers against catastrophic risks; and auctions of federal reinsurance for supercatastrophic risks.

Notes:

Title from PDF title screen (viewed on Apr 27, 2010).

"November 2008."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-36).

OCLC:

318694147

Access Restriction:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE.