We propose a model for an insurance loss index and the claims process of a single insurance company holding a fraction of the total number of contracts that captures both ordinary losses and losses due to catastrophes. In this model we price a catastrophe derivative by the method of utility indifference pricing. The associated stochastic optimization problem is treated by techniques for piecewise deterministic Markov processes. A numerical study illustrates our results.

The thesis contains 3 repairable systems and 2 replacement systems: First a repairable system is considered with Markovian deterioration and imperfect repair, carried out at fixed times. We look for optimal strategies under certain conditions. Two optimality criteria are considered: expected discounted cost and long-run average cost. Conditions are found under which the optimal policy is a control-limit policy as used by Derman or Ross. We explicitly explain how to derive this optimal policy; numerical examples are given, too. The special case of unbounded cost is also studied. With the first model the state space is numerable but with the second it is not. With the fourth model the system occurs a shock process and is only inspected after such a shock. Models 3 and 5 are replacement systems with Morkovian deterioration and finite state space {0,...,N}. A system in state N is considered to be in a very serious situation. Hence there is the condition, e.g. stipulated by law, that the percentage of all replaced machines in state N in the group of all replaced machines may not be larger than 100 epsilon for a fixed epsilon in [0,1]. We prove that a generalized control limit policy maximizes the expected running time of a machine and we explain explicitly how to derive this optimal policy. Illustrated numerical examples are given.