Download or read book Deregulation and Competition in the Insurance Industry written by Banks McDowell and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1989-05-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text focuses on insurance as an industry and speculates what would happen if the insurance industry were to be deregulated. The basics of insurance are incorporated throughout, which allows for a greater understanding of the possible implications of deregulation and trends in competition. . . . What could have been dry and tedious has instead been made pleasant by Banks McDowell, who writes with an easy-to-read and informative style. Examples of small case studies are woven into the text to further illustrate the issues. The material is clear, concise, and thought-provoking and is presented entirely without prejudice. Business Information ALERT The rapid rise in insurance premium costs coupled with the problem of obtaining insurance at any cost for some applicants has precipitated a crisis in the insurance industry. Many scholars and industry analysts have suggested deregulation as a solution, arguing that the actions of a free market are the only efficient means of controlling costs and affordability. McDowell offers an in-depth examination of the arguments in favor of and against deregulation and analyzes what the probable effects of such deregulation would be. Basing his study on the results of past experiments, scholarly recommendations, economic analysis, and his own work in the field, McDowell fully explores the various types of deregulation that could be implemented and assesses the degree to which they would fulfill the goals of maintaining the financial solvency of insurance companies, keeping premiums from being excessive, preventing discrimination among policyholders, and making insurance available and affordable to all who want it. McDowell begins with a discussion of what deregulation means. Subsequent chapters trace the history of insurance regulation, examine the complex goals of governmental insurance regulation, and explore the nature of insurance in contemporary society. Turning to a discussion of competition, McDowell illustrates the various levels at which insurers can compete and examines both the problems of regulation in each area and the likely effects of introducing such competition. The issue of whether regulation of the industry should be at the federal or state level receives thorough treatment, as does the question of using insurance company mergers to increase efficiency and lower costs. McDowell concludes with an enlightening discussion of the series of choices among aims and policies which must be made before the decision to deregulate or not is taken. Insurance company executives and attorneys as well as students of the insurance industry or of insurance law will find McDowell's work a cogent exposition of the complex facets of the insurance deregulation debate.

Download or read book Deregulating Property Liability Insurance written by J. David Cummins and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-06-23 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, the United States has successfully deregulated prices and restrictions on most previously-regulated industries, including airlines, trucking, railroads, telecommunications, and banking. Only a few industries remain regulated, the largest being the property-liability insurance business. In light of recent sweeping financial modernization legislation in other sectors of the insurance industry, this timely volume examines the basis for continued regulation of rates and forms of the U.S. property-liability insurance market. The book focuses on private passenger automobile insurance—the most important personal line of property-liability coverage, with annual premiums of about $120 billion. The authors analyze five state case studies: California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey—three of the most heavily regulated states—as well as Illinois, which has been deregulated for about 30 years, and South Carolina, which began to deregulate in 1997. The study also includes an econometric analysis based on all fifty states over a 25-year period that gauges the impact of regulation on insurance price levels, price volatility, and the proportion of automobiles insured in residual markets. The authors conclude that regulation does not significantly reduce long-run prices for consumers, and generally limits availability of coverage, reduces the quality and variety of services available in the market, inhibits productivity growth, and increases price volatility. Contributors include Dwight Jaffee (University of California, Berkeley), Thomas Russell (Santa Clara University ), Laureen Regan (Temple University), Sharon Tennyson (Cornell University), Mary Weiss (Temple University), John Worrall (Rutgers University), Stephen D'Arcy (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Martin Grace (Georgia State University), Robert Klein (Georgia State University), Richard Phillips (Georgia State University), Georges Dionne (University of Montreal), and Richard Butler (Brigham Young University).

Download or read book The Future of Insurance Regulation in the United States written by Martin F. Grace and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and Georgia State University publication Important changes have buffeted the insurance industry over the past decade. The 1999 repeal of key provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act unleashed a wave of conglomeration in financial services, as bank holding companies acquired insurance and securities businesses and, to a much lesser degree, insurance companies acquired securities firms and banks. Rivalry within the sector has intensified: insurance companies have developed products that compete directly with the offerings of banks and securities firms and vice versa. In addition, the industry has become increasingly global. Against this backdrop, pressure has been building for fundamental changes to the structure of insurance regulation in the United States. Despite several court challenges over the years, insurance continues to be regulated by the states. Many insurance companies view state regulation as an increasing drag on their efficiency and competitiveness and support a federal regulatory system. However, powerful stakeholders, including state officials, state and regional insurance companies, and many insurance agents, oppose federal regulation. As a result, proposals to establish an optional federal charter (OFC) for insurance companies and agents remain mired in fierce debate. The Future of Insurance Regulation in the United States gathers some of the country's leading experts on financial regulation to assess the case for an enhanced federal role in the insurance sector. They pay particular attention to the merits of an OFC and how it might be designed. They also consider the principles that should guide insurance regulatory policies, regardless of the institutional framework, and examine the implications of financial convergence and the internationalization of insurance markets for an optimal regulatory structure. The debate over insurance regulation has only grown in complexity and intensity since the financial crisis began in the fall of 2008. This book will both inform and help to shape those critical discussions. Contributors: John A. Cooke (International Financial Services London), Robert Detlefsen (National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies), Martin F. Grace (Georgia State University), Robert W. Klein (Georgia State University), Robert E. Litan (Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Brookings Institution), Phil O’Connor (PROactive Strategies), Hal S. Scott (Harvard Law School), Harold D. Skipper (Georgia State University), Peter J. Wallison (American Enterprise Institute).

Download or read book The Property liability Insurance Industry written by Tobias W. Schwartz and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Legislative Trends in Insurance Regulation written by Douglas Caddy and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many years the American insurance industry, sometimes dubbed the nation's "invisible banker," has enjoyed virtual freedom from federal antitrust regulation and protection from competition with banks and savings and loan associations. State regulation has often proved meaningless. Now, however, as the valuable study makes clear, the complacencies of the past are quickly vanishing, to be replaced by a growing consumer demand for accountability. Such issues as bank deregulation and unisex insurance have forced insurance companies to rethink many of their traditional approaches in order to satisfy consumers and to survive in a harsh economy. In nontechnical language, Douglas Caddy offers an analysis of the major legislative and regulatory trends affecting the insurance industry. Government regulation, he points out, has steadily increased in many American industries, leading to claims that such agencies as the ICC, the CAB, and OSHA have seriously impaired competition and have penalized the consumer. In the end, according to this view, the watchdogs have merely served the groups they were designed to regulate. The growing challenge to government controls has deeply affected the insurance industry and promises to mold state and federal legislation concerning regulation. Issues already pending include changes in the tax code and reforms in rate regulation. Other reformers, as Caddy describes, urge insurance companies to provide consumers with simple disclosure statements detailing the contents of each policy. This book, aimed at insurance executives, lobbyists, and lawyers, but also of interest to concerned laymen, is an excellent introduction to the perplexities facing once of America's most powerful industries. It is sure to be a timely and comprehensive look at insurance in an era of consumerism.

Download or read book Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies written by Peter J. Wallison and published by American Enterprise Institute. This book was released on 2000 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to heightened competition, the larger insurance companies and various insurance industry groups have become interested in the concept of federal chartering and regulation.

Download or read book The State of the Insurance Industry written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Crisis in Insurance Regulation written by Banks McDowell and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1994-03-14 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private and governmental insurance systems in the United States have been suffering an ongoing series of crises. Automobile liability insurance, malpractice protection, health insurance, pension plans, and property insurance have been troubled in recent times by such matters as the threat of insolvency, extremely high premiums, lack of availability for many applicants, and discriminatory selling practices. For over a century, private insurance has been heavily regulated. Governmental insurance, particularly social programs such as Social Security and Medicare, also face serious funding and availability problems. These ongoing problems suggest that regulators have not been doing a very effective job. Unhappy consumers are making different demands both on the industry and on regulators. Some call for deregulation in the belief that market forces will make insurance more efficient, available, and affordable. Others insist that governmental regulators, whether legislators, insurance commissioners, or judges, step in and help solve these problems. Regulators, very much a part of the political process, have avoided these controversial areas of difficult choices. Avoidance is no longer an option for regulators. McDowell explores what competing types of regulation, whether market, industrial, or governmental, might be used, what goals regulators are committed to, the different regulatory philosophies of federal and state agencies, whether the problems are caused by under-regulation or over-regulation, and difficulties of enforcement. He discusses in detail these regulatory problems in the fields of automobile liability insurance, health insurance, and the demand of other financial service institutions to compete in the insurance business. Throughout the book, he compares what American regulators are doing with the practices in Canada in order to illuminate problems and possible solutions for American regulators to consider. Finally, he closes with an analysis of whether the emerging trends of internationalization and interdependence of personal and economic spheres, the increase in magnitude of risks, and the increased speed of transactions will require changes in insurance regulation. Insurance regulators and professionals in governmental and private insurance as well as scholars and students of insurance law will be interested in this book. Even consumers who are concerned or angry about the future of their insurance protection will find it valuable.

Download or read book Insurance Deregulation written by Nathan Weber and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Regulation and Deregulation of Insurance Markets in the Federal Republic of Germany written by Johann-Matthias Schulenburg (Graf von der.) and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book California s Volatile Workers Compensation Insurance Market written by Lloyd S. Dixon and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since partial deregulation of insurance rates in 1995, the California workers' compensation insurance market has been very volatile. For reasons that go beyond price deregulation, there have been dramatic swings in insurers' underwriting profits and the share of coverage written by private insurance carriers, and a substantial number of insurers, including some of the largest market participants, have failed. The price that California employers have paid for workers' compensation insurance has been volatile since 1995 as well, continuing the considerable variation that occurred in earlier years. This book identifies and examines factors that contributed to the market volatility and the large number of insolvencies following price deregulation. It also examines the regulatory system that oversees the workers' compensation market and how the California Department of Insurance responded to the market turmoil that followed the move to open rating. It makes recommendations that aim to reduce market volatility and the frequency of insolvencies while realizing the benefits of a competitive market.

Download or read book Insurance and Issues in Financial Soundness written by Nigel Davies and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-07-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper explores insurance as a source of financial system vulnerability. It provides a brief overview of the insurance industry and reviews the risks it faces, as well as several recent failures of insurance companies that had systemic implications. Assimilation of banking-type activities by life insurers appears to be the key systemic vulnerability. Building on this experience and the experience gained under the FSAP, the paper proposes key indicators that should be compiled and used for surveillance of financial soundness of insurance companies and the insurance sector as a whole.

Download or read book The Economics of Regulation and Deregulation written by Yuanming Niu and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Indian Insurance Sector Deregulation and the Global Financial Crisis written by Joy Chakraborty and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-10 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the deregulation of the Indian insurance sector in 1999, the market-share of the country's sole largest public-sector player Life Insurance Corporation of India has drastically gone down with the entry of private players. The abrupt rise in the presence of private players has eventually raised concerns about the performances of the life insurance players in safeguarding the interests of the policyholders. Further, the global financial crisis of 2007-08 had its contagion effects in the Indian insurance industry, the ripples of which were even felt in the performances of the Indian life insurers. The study thus makes an attempt to evaluate the operational efficiencies, productivity and financial health of the life insurance companies in India, covering the period from 2008-09 to 2014-15 against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and the insurance sector deregulation in India. The study has also hinted at the monopolistic-competition type of market structure prevailing in the country's life insurance sector. The study further gave indications about the commendable turnaround manifested by the life insurers from the spill-over effects of the financial crisis post 2010.

Download or read book Deregulation and Competition in the Insurance Industry written by Banks McDowell and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1989-05-11 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text focuses on insurance as an industry and speculates what would happen if the insurance industry were to be deregulated. The basics of insurance are incorporated throughout, which allows for a greater understanding of the possible implications of deregulation and trends in competition. . . . What could have been dry and tedious has instead been made pleasant by Banks McDowell, who writes with an easy-to-read and informative style. Examples of small case studies are woven into the text to further illustrate the issues. The material is clear, concise, and thought-provoking and is presented entirely without prejudice. Business Information ALERT The rapid rise in insurance premium costs coupled with the problem of obtaining insurance at any cost for some applicants has precipitated a crisis in the insurance industry. Many scholars and industry analysts have suggested deregulation as a solution, arguing that the actions of a free market are the only efficient means of controlling costs and affordability. McDowell offers an in-depth examination of the arguments in favor of and against deregulation and analyzes what the probable effects of such deregulation would be. Basing his study on the results of past experiments, scholarly recommendations, economic analysis, and his own work in the field, McDowell fully explores the various types of deregulation that could be implemented and assesses the degree to which they would fulfill the goals of maintaining the financial solvency of insurance companies, keeping premiums from being excessive, preventing discrimination among policyholders, and making insurance available and affordable to all who want it. McDowell begins with a discussion of what deregulation means. Subsequent chapters trace the history of insurance regulation, examine the complex goals of governmental insurance regulation, and explore the nature of insurance in contemporary society. Turning to a discussion of competition, McDowell illustrates the various levels at which insurers can compete and examines both the problems of regulation in each area and the likely effects of introducing such competition. The issue of whether regulation of the industry should be at the federal or state level receives thorough treatment, as does the question of using insurance company mergers to increase efficiency and lower costs. McDowell concludes with an enlightening discussion of the series of choices among aims and policies which must be made before the decision to deregulate or not is taken. Insurance company executives and attorneys as well as students of the insurance industry or of insurance law will find McDowell's work a cogent exposition of the complex facets of the insurance deregulation debate.

Download or read book Economic Regulation and Its Reform written by Nancy L. Rose and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past thirty years have witnessed a transformation of government economic intervention in broad segments of industry throughout the world. Many industries historically subject to economic price and entry controls have been largely deregulated, including natural gas, trucking, airlines, and commercial banking. However, recent concerns about market power in restructured electricity markets, airline industry instability amid chronic financial stress, and the challenges created by the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which allowed commercial banks to participate in investment banking, have led to calls for renewed market intervention. Economic Regulation and Its Reform collects research by a group of distinguished scholars who explore these and other issues surrounding government economic intervention. Determining the consequences of such intervention requires a careful assessment of the costs and benefits of imperfect regulation. Moreover, government interventions may take a variety of forms, from relatively nonintrusive performance-based regulations to more aggressive antitrust and competition policies and barriers to entry. This volume introduces the key issues surrounding economic regulation, provides an assessment of the economic effects of regulatory reforms over the past three decades, and examines how these insights bear on some of today’s most significant concerns in regulatory policy.

Download or read book The Department of the Treasury Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure written by and published by United States Department of the Treasury. This book was released on 2008-06-24 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a series of “short-term” and “intermediate-term” recommendations that could immediately improve and reform the U.S. regulatory structure. The short-term recommendations focus on taking action now to improve regulatory coordination and oversight in the wake of recent events in the credit and mortgage markets. The intermediate recommendations focus on eliminating some of the duplication of the U.S. regulatory system, but more importantly try to modernize the regulatory structure applicable to the banking, insurance, securities, and futures industries.