Current debates in the insurance and public policy literatures over health care financing and cost control measures continue to focus on managed care and HMOs. The lower utilization rates found in HMOs (compared to traditional fee-for-service indemnity plans) have generally been attributed to...

In a mean-variance framework, the indifference pricing approach is adopted to value weather derivatives, taking account of portfolio effects. Our analysis shows how the magnitude of portfolio effects is related to the correlation between weather indexes and other risky assets, the correlation...

This study examines the effect of the statistical/mathematical model selected and the variable set considered on the ability to identify financially troubled life insurers. Models considered are two artificial neural network methods (back-propagation and learning vector quantization (LVQ)) and...

A new linear programming formulation for handling categorical outputs in DEA is presented which eliminates the difficulties of interpretation and computation that accompanied earlier mixed integer models.

This paper demonstrates that a class of two-person games with ratio payoff functions can be solved using equivalent primal-dual linear programming formulations. The game's solution contains specialized information which may be used to conduct the efficiency evaluation currently done by the CCR...

An examination of the efficiency of the marketing distribution channel and organizational structure for insurance companies is presented from a framework that views the insurer as a financial intermediary rather than as a "production entity" which produces "value added" through loss payments....