In the 1970's, the research agenda in insurance was dominated by optimal insurance coverage, security design, and equilibrium under conditions of imperfect information. The 1980's saw a growth of theoretical developments including non-expected utility, price volatility, retention capacity, the pricing and design of insurance contracts in the presence of multiple risks, and the liability insurance crisis. The empirical study of information problems, financial derivatives, and large losses due to catastrophic events dominated the research agenda in the 1990's.
The Handbook of Insurance provides a single reference source on insurance for professors, researchers, graduate students, regulators, consultants, and practitioners, that reviews the research developments in insurance and its related fields that have occurred over the last thirty years. The book starts with the history and foundations of insurance theory and moves on to review asymmetric information, risk management and insurance pricing, and the industrial organization of insurance markets. The book ends with life insurance, pensions, and economic security.
Each chapter has been written by a leading authority in insurance, all contributions have been peer reviewed, and each chapter can be read independently of the others.

Inhalt
I History.- 1 Developments in Risk and Insurance Economics: The Past 25 Years.- II Insurance Theory Without Information Problems.- 2 Non-Expected Utility and the Robustness of the Classical Insurance Paradigm.- 3 Optimal Insurance Design: What can we do with and without Expected Utility?.- 4 The Effects of Changes in Risk on Risk Taking: A Survey.- 5 The Theory of Insurance Demand.- III Asymmetric Information: Theory.- 6 Optimal Insurance under Moral Hazard.- 7 Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets.- 8 The Theory of Risk Classification.- 9 The Economics of Liability Insurance.- 10 Economic Analysis of Insurance Fraud.- IV Asymmetric Information: Empirical Analysis.- 11 Econometric Models of Insurance under Asymmetric Information.- 12 The Empirical Measure of Information Problems with Emphasis on Insurance Fraud.- 13 Incentive Effects of Workers' Compensation: A Survey.- 14 Experience Rating through Heterogeneous Models.- V Risk Management.- 15 Innovation in Corporate Risk Management: The Case of Catastrophe Risk.- 16 On Corporate Insurance.- 17 Financial Risk Management in the Insurance Industry.- 18 Linking Insurance and Mitigation to Manage Natural Disaster Risk.- VI Insurance Pricing.- 19 Applications of Financial Pricing Models in Property-Liability Insurance.- 20 Volatility and Underwriting Cycles.- VII Industrial Organization of Insurance Markets.- 21 Organizational Forms within the Insurance Industry: Theory and Evidence.- 22 Insurance Distribution Systems.- 23 The Retention Capacity of Insurance Markets in Developing Countries.- 24 Analyzing Firm Performance in the Insurance Industry Using Frontier Efficiency and Productivity Methods.- 25 Dealing with the Insurance Business in the Economic Accounts.- VIII Life Insurance, Pensions and Economic Security.- 26Developments in Pensions.- 27 Life Insurance.- 28 The Division of Labor Between Private and Social Insurance.