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Three economic issues in property/casualty insurance are examined in this thesis. Chapter 2 explores the impact of supply side heterogeneity on the market equilibrium. Multiple period contracting and informational issues are examined in Chapters 3 and 4. Property/casualty insurance is marketed in two manners: through agency writers and direct writers. Direct writers can sell insurance at a lower cost than agency writers. By exploiting demand side characteristics, Chapter 2 extends the traditional literature by examining the behaviour of heterogeneous insurers within a framework that admits both direct and agency writers in equilibrium. Heterogeneous travel costs are used to support this equilibrium. A second model is developed in which claim frequency heterogeneity is introduced on the demand side. It is assumed that agency writers can better discern a consumer's risk type. Characteristics of equilibria under which direct and agency writers exist are derived. In Chapter 3, Rothschild and Stiglitz's (1976) single period insurance model is extended to multiple periods. In a multiple period framework, insurers offer a sequence of single period contracts in which future contracts are conditioned on past contract choices. For dynamic consistency, once low risks have revealed their type, future contracts must be contingent on this event. This contract structure is compared to both a sequence of one period pooling contracts and a sequence of one period separating contracts. Numerical examples illustrate the results. In Chapter 4, learning by insurers is examined in a model in which consumers possess search costs. The presence of search costs allows inefficient insurers to remain in the market, and allows lower cost firms to earn higher profit loadings each period. Insurers, who possess differing initial valuations of a consumer's loss propensity, update the contract offered each period based on a consumer's past accident history. In a multiple period setting, consumers search for new coverage and switch insurers when the price charged by their contracting insurer exceeds the price that they are willing to pay.

Three economic issues in property/casualty insurance are examined in this thesis. Chapter 2 explores the impact of supply side heterogeneity on the market equilibrium. Multiple period contracting and informational issues are examined in Chapters 3 and 4. Property/casualty insurance is marketed in two manners: through agency writers and direct writers. Direct writers can sell insurance at a lower cost than agency writers. By exploiting demand side characteristics, Chapter 2 extends the traditional literature by examining the behaviour of heterogeneous insurers within a framework that admits both direct and agency writers in equilibrium. Heterogeneous travel costs are used to support this equilibrium. A second model is developed in which claim frequency heterogeneity is introduced on the demand side. It is assumed that agency writers can better discern a consumer's risk type. Characteristics of equilibria under which direct and agency writers exist are derived. In Chapter 3, Rothschild and Stiglitz's (1976) single period insurance model is extended to multiple periods. In a multiple period framework, insurers offer a sequence of single period contracts in which future contracts are conditioned on past contract choices. For dynamic consistency, once low risks have revealed their type, future contracts must be contingent on this event. This contract structure is compared to both a sequence of one period pooling contracts and a sequence of one period separating contracts. Numerical examples illustrate the results. In Chapter 4, learning by insurers is examined in a model in which consumers possess search costs. The presence of search costs allows inefficient insurers to remain in the market, and allows lower cost firms to earn higher profit loadings each period. Insurers, who possess differing initial valuations of a consumer's loss propensity, update the contract offered each period based on a consumer's past accident history. In a multiple period setting, consumers search for new coverage and switch insurers when the price charged by their contracting insurer exceeds the price that they are willing to pay. / Business, Sauder School of / Finance, Division of / Graduate

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M.Fam.Med.,Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009

While academics and commentators have devoted considerable energy to analyzing the relationship between United States military casualties and the reaction of American public opinion, few have taken notice of the opinions and perceptions of military officers. U.S. Army officers, comprising the bulk of the American military leadership, sustained a thorough debate concerning casualties and public opinion between 1970 and 1999. That debate is apparent from a study of articles in the military's professional journals, contributions to scholarly journals, memoirs, and monographs emerging from the various service schools. Examining the material generated by officers during these decades reveals that they perceived a trend - as well as disclosing a trend in their own writing and discussions. Shaken by the experience of the Vietnam War, unsettled by the public's rejection of that war, officers struggled to prepare for future wars. In the thirty years under discussion, U.S. Army officers noticed an emphasis on technology intended to be more lethal to the enemy and to provide more protection for the American soldier. Officers observed a doctrinal trend beginning with conserving scarce manpower, escalating to minimizing casualties, and reaching the establishment of force protection as a mission equal to any in a given operation. American officers perceived that their political and military leadership had first grown wary of spending American lives and gradually came to view casualties as synonymous with defeat. Associated with this phenomenon, officers noted that in many cases - increasing as this era advanced - sustaining casualties below a given threshold marked the operation as a victory. In sum, military officers observed a trend in which America's civilian and military leadership strived to avoid sending men into conflict, attempting to mitigate through technology the risk combat posed to soldiers, and reacting to casualties as if they signified military defeat.

Univ., Diss.--Hamburg, 2003.

Thesis (M.S. in Combat Systems Technology)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Daphne Kapolka. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61). Also available online.

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