Insurance Seminar
Fall 2006


Objective:
This course is designed to help graduate students to understand the basic concepts of insurance theories and how they can be applied in the management of insurance company’s operation. Our primary objective in teaching this course is to provide students with professional knowledge and analytical skills to function as managers of insurance company or as analyst of insurance related research. Several current issues and problems in insurance industry operation and government regulation in Taiwan or in other countries will be discussed in the class.

Instructors:
曾郁仁（Larry Y. R.Tzeng）
台大財務金融系教授 tzeng@ntu.edu.tw


Grading: Class participation: 30 % Paper presentation: 30%
Final Examination: 40 %

Paper presentation:
Students will be assigned to present a couple of papers in this course.

Class participation:
Students are encouraged to provide your own opinions in any class discussion. It will help students to improve the skill for public speech as well as the analysis skill by applying the concepts or theories to related insurance practices

Reading List:
一、 Insurance Economics:
1. Optimal Loss Mitigation and Contract Design, Kelly and Kleffner, JRI, 2002, Vol. 70, pp. 53-72.
2. Fix-Reimbusement Insurance: Basic Properties and Comparative Statics, Eechhoudt, JRI, 2003, Vol. 70, pp. 185-206.

二、 Asymmetric Information:
1. Moral Hazard in Risk Pooling Arrangement, Lee and Ligon, JRI, 2001, Vol. 68, pp. 175-190.
2. Asymmetric Information and Settlement of Insurance Claims, Fenn and Pickman, JRI, 2001, Vol. 68, pp. 615-630.
3. Adverse Selection in an Insurance Market with Government-Guaranteed Subsistence Level, Kim and Schlesingers, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 61-76.
4. Moral Hazard in Reinsurance Market, Doherty and Smetters, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 375-392.

三、 Insurance Finance:
1. Capital Allocation for Insurance Companies, Myers and Read, JRI, 2001, Vol. 68, pp. 545-580.
2. Estimating the Cost of Equity Capital for Property-liability Insurers, Cummins and Phillips, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 441-478.
3. Securitization of Life Insurance Asset and Liability, Cowley and Cummins, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 193-226.
4. The Use of DFA to Determine Whether an Optimal Growth Rate Exists for Propoerty-Liability Insurers, D’Arcy and Gorvett, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 583-616.

四、 Insurance Operation:
1. The Relations among Organizational and Distribution Forms and Capital and Asset Structures in the Life insurance Industry, Baranoff and Sager, JRI, 2003, Vol. 70, pp. 375-400.
2. The Role of Holding Company Financial Information in Insurer-Rating Process, Gaver and Pottier, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 77-104.

五、 Insurance Efficiency and Performance:
1. Organization Structure and Performance: Evidence from the Non-life insurance Industry in Japan, Piman and Lai, JRI, 2003, Vol. 70, pp. 735-758.
2. Financial Intermediary vs. Production Approach to Efficiency of Marketing Distribution Systems and Organizational Structure of Insurance Company, Brockett et. al, JRI, 2005, Vol. 72, pp. 393-412.

六、 Pension and Annuity:
1. The Cost of Pension Insurance, Ippolito, JRI, 2002, Vol. 69, pp. 121-170.
2. Implication of Social Security Reform on Interest Rates, Elder and Holland, JRI, 2002, Vol. 69, pp. 225-258.
3. Mandatory Pensions and Intensity of Adverse selection in Life Insurance Market, Jennings and Kinderman, JRI, 2002, Vol. 70, pp. 527-548.
4. Survivor Bonds: Helping to Hedge Mortality Risk, Blake and Burrows, JRI, 2002, Vol. 69, pp. 45-62.
(Survivor Bonds: A comment, Dowd, JRI, 2003, Vol. 70, pp. 339-348. Reply to Survivor Bonds: A comment, Blake, JRI, 2003, Vol. 70, pp. 329-352.)