Description: From a session at the 2000 Valuation Actuary Symposium held in Washington DC, September 14-15, 2000 Prior to 1999, Glass-Steagall legally separated banking, brokerage, and insurance activities. Enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act brings “down the walls,” separating these financial industries. This session talks about the financial services modernization law and the impact it will have.

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: 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.