The economics of insurance markets

This course provides an introduction to research on the intersection between insurance and financial economics. Starting from what modern insurance companies do and their role in the broader economy, we develop a unifying framework to study the pricing and design of insurance contracts, reinsurance decisions, and asset allocation strategies in equilibrium. In this framework, supply side frictions, such as regulatory frictions and imperfect competition, play a central role. In addition to developing the theory, we discuss how to estimate the models and how to use them to answer policy questions.