Private insurance coverage for economic losses caused by pandemics is limited. While many factors contribute to reduced demand and supply, we attribute the low amount of coverage to the high levels of capital that would be required to credibly insure pandemic economic losses with cross-sectional pooling mechanisms. Pooling over time significantly reduces the required capital and therefore the cost of insurance, but as a practical matter likely requires a government with the ability to borrow and tax. We also argue that insurance for economic losses due to pandemics likely generates positive externalities for the macroeconomy. We therefore analyze the general tradeoffs associated with different ways that a government can promote such insurance.

The Chinese life-insurance industry has experienced major structural changes in recent years, primarily because of increasing demand and the entry of foreign insurers. Although the market is clearly booming, the efficiency of its growth and development is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of life insurers operating in China and compare foreign firms with domestic firms. We find that foreign insurers have not brought efficiency into the Chinese market, and that the market is still dominated by domestic giants. However, the gap between foreign insurers and domestic insurers is narrowing. After testing hypotheses regarding scale economy, technical progress and potential improvements, we discuss several issues of importance to life insurers, market investors and government regulators. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

This research provides a comprehensive historical analysis of articles published in The Journal of Risk and Insurance over the 75-year period from 1932 to 2006. Historical statistics are provided including the number of articles, number of authors per article, geographic location of contributors, leading contributors, author affiliation (industry or academic), the proportion of articles that are theoretical and empirical, and topics covered. Statistics relating to the entire 75-year period are provided as well as breakdowns by decade.The results indicate that the contributors to The Journal of Risk and Insurance have become more international over time, average article length and average number of authors per article have increased over time, and empirical articles appear more frequently than theoretical articles.

COVID‐19 has proven that pandemic risk deems to the type of catastrophe risk that needs to be treated seriously, by both society and the insurance industry. A key element to measure, manage, and transfer pandemic risk is the modeling capability. This paper first reviews the insured loss from COVID‐19 and the impact on the insurance industry. Then, current pandemic risk modeling capabilities and how insurance industry uses these models are evaluated. Some suggestions are made in terms of how these models can be improved in the future and how they can assist in insuring the pandemic risk. Finally, the nonmodeling elements of pandemic risk transfer and the government's role are discussed.