Improving Disaster Financing

In November 2016, Resources for the Future and the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center brought together researchers, policymakers, and private sector experts for critical conversations about the role of government in disaster insurance markets. At the workshop, “Improving Disaster Financing: Evaluating Policy Interventions in Disaster Insurance Markets,” the SOA sponsored new papers presented by world-renowned scholars on six governmental disaster insurance programs:

• The National Flood Insurance Program
• The California Earthquake Authority
• Florida’s Public Wind Pools
• Terrorism Risk Insurance Program
• Flood Re in the United Kingdom
• A Potential All-hazards Homeowners Policy

Participants discussed the ideal roles of the public and private sectors in disaster risk financing and evaluated each program against a range of topic areas, such as incentives for risk reduction, take-up rates, how costs are distributed, and the influence on the private market. Papers on the individual disaster insurance programs follow below. 

Papers by Disaster Insurance Program

National Flood Insurance Program

• Policy Brief: A Discussion of the National Flood Insurance Program
• Discussion Paper: Financing Flood Losses: A Discussion of the National Flood Insurance Program

Florida’s Public Wind Pools

• Policy Brief: Florida’s Public Wind Pools: Two Not-So-Residual Markets
• Discussion Paper: Florida’s State Wind Pools

California Earthquake Authority

• Policy Brief: An Overview of the California Earthquake Authority
• Discussion Paper: The California Earthquake Authority

Terrorism Risk Insurance Program

• Policy Brief: The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA): Unique Financing for a Unique Risk
• Discussion Paper: A Successful (Yet Somewhat Untested) Case of Disaster Financing: Terrorism Insurance under TRIA, 2002–2020

Flood Re (United Kingdom)

• Policy Brief: What Can the United States Learn from the United Kingdom’s New Flood Reinsurance Pool?
• Discussion Paper: Fit for Purpose and Fit for the Future? An Evaluation of the UK’s New Flood Reinsurance Pool

All-Hazards Homeowners Policies

• Policy Brief: All-Hazards Homeowners Insurance: A Possibility for the United States?
• Discussion Paper: All-Hazards Homeowners Insurance: Challenges and Opportunities