The devastation caused by hurricanes during the 2004 and 2005 seasons has been unprecedented and is forcing the insurance industry to reevaluate the role that it can play in dealing with future natural disasters in the United States. As shown in Table 1 the four hurricanes that hit Florida in...

In the United States, standard homeowners insurance policies cover damages resulting from fire, wind, and hail, but exclude damages caused by floods and earthquakes. This is not the practice worldwide: several countries include all perils in homeowners insurance. Building on two fundamental...

We examine risk preferences using the flood insurance decisions of over 100,000 households. In each contract, households make a small stakes decision, the deductible, and a large stakes one, the coverage limit. Over 94 percent of household choose one of the two lowest deductibles out of six...

Economic and insured losses from natural catastrophes have increased significantly in recent years and are challenging the way catastrophe risk insurance markets operate today. This chapter focuses on how insurance in combination with other policy tools can reduce losses from natural disasters...