The insurance coverage for natural disasters remains low in many exposed areas, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Reduced availability or unaffordability of insurance are commonly identified as the primary causes for this low insurance coverage. The French overseas departments...

This paper addresses the urbanization of areas exposed to natural disasters and studies its dependency on land-use and insurance policies. The risk-map paradox that we describe explains why an insurance system with simplistic maps and tariffs is the rule. Indeed, in practice we observe simple...