One unusual feature of the U.S. property-casualty insurance industry is the coexistence of stock and mutual companies … insurance companies respond to differences in their underwriting environment. Agency theories suggest that the stock company may …' performance, by state and by line, in eight different lines of insurance. Stock companies are more likely than mutuals to reduce …

Natural catastrophes often have catastrophic risks on insurance companies as well as on the insured. Using a very large … dataset on homeowners%u2019 insurance coverage by state, by firm, and by year for the 1984 to 2004 period, this paper … term %u201Cblockbuster catastrophes.%u201D Insurers adapt to these catastrophic risks by raising insurance rates, leading …