Description: This paper uses the ideal quasi-natural experiment of government-subsidized agricultural insurance program phased out in different regions of China since 2007 to study the effects and transmission mechanisms of the program on alleviating regional poverty using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. Specifically, this paper identifies the causal effects on the incidence, depth and intensity of poverty among rural residents. The research has important policy implications. First, this paper uses the program as a case to provide a research paradigm to estimate effects of implementing policy instruments that combine markets and government mandates. Second, as common prosperity is now a government imperative, the research also provides insights into ways insurance can be used to hedge income risks, alleviate poverty and help achieve more equitable distribution. The paper has been published on WeChat account of Chinese Association of Actuaries on February 9, 2022. The full version has been published in CSSCI journal Insurance Research, issue 11, 2021.

Description: Updates on HPC activities, including new work groups for providing input to key players as health care reform moves on from the legislative phase into the regulatory phase, as well as ongoing activities of existing workgroups in financial reporting, long term care, stop loss, disease management, Medicare SUpplement, sovency, cancer claims experience, and risk adjustment.

Description: Lessons learned in the financial crisis - global ramifications and need for better financial reporting standards and market oversight.

Description: Explains how Dodd-Frank will impact activities of an insurance company in a number of ways.

Description: A discussion of the causes of Jamaica’s Life Insurance and Financial Sector Crisis in the late 1990s and its impacts on the life insurance industry

Description: Comments that were sent to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform regarding value-added taxes and the affects on the CPI.

Description: From a session at a meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in San Diego, CA, June 22-23, 2000 The panel provides background on the impact of the passage of HR10 in November 1999 on the future of credit insurance, as well as the life insurance industry in general.

Description: This article discusses the possibility of high inflation down the road. The high levels of debt incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be difficult for many countries to support. Central bank activity is "standing in the gap" but this is not necessarily the optimal solution. Inflation can also become an issue due to contagion coming from less financially stable countries, resulting a crisis of confidence, driving up interest rates.

Description: Speaker, who is VP and Chief Counsel of the American Council of Life Insurance [ACLI], discusses the latest activities in the area of federal financial-reform legislation, or 'financial modernization.' From the 1997 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 3.