Economic and financial research on insurance markets has undergone
dramatic growth since its infancy in the early 1960s. Our main objective
in compiling this volume was to achieve a wider dissemination of key
papers in this literature. Their significance is highlighted in the
introduction, which surveys major areas in insurance economics. While it
was not possible to provide comprehensive coverage of insurance
economics in this book, these readings provide an essential foundation
to those who desire to conduct research and teach in the field. In
particular, we hope that this compilation and our introduction will be
useful to graduate students and to researchers in economics, finance,
and insurance. Our criteria for selecting articles included
significance, representativeness, pedagogical value, and our desire to
include theoretical and empirical work. While the focus of the applied
papers is on property-liability insurance, they illustrate issues,
concepts, and methods that are applicable in many areas of insurance.
The S. S. Huebner Foundation for Insurance Education at the University
of Pennsylvania's Wharton School made this book possible by financing
publication costs. We are grateful for this assistance and to J. David
Cummins, Executive Director of the Foundation, for his efforts and
helpful advice on the contents. We also wish to thank all of the authors
and editors who provided permission to reprint articles and our
respective institutions for technical and financial support.