Institute of Insurance Science

Insurance Economics (Versicherungsökonomik)

Contact

Lecturer

Shihao Zhu

Exercises

Tom Pohlschmidt

Dates

See Moodle, for the planned course dates.

General Info

The lecture will be held in English.

German title of this lecture: "Versicherungsökonomik"

Further information on the lecture and all documents are available on Moodle. So please register for the lecture in Moodle. 

Course Content

This course provides an introduction to insurance economics.

Topics addressed include:

  • Basics of insurance economics
  • Choice under uncertainty (expected utility theory and rational decision under risk, measure for risk aversion, mean variance preferences)
  • Insurance demands by households (base model, insurance demand without fair premium, Pareto-optimal insurance contract)
  • Insurance demand by firms (risk management and diversification, risk management forward, future and options, corporate demand for insurance)
  • Insurance supply (traditional premium calculation, financial modelling of insurance pricing, economies of scope, economies of scale)
  • Microeconomic analysis (moral hazard, adverse selection)
  • Insurance regulation

Requirements

The lecture is designed for Bachelor and Master students of "Economathematics", "Mathematics", "Economics" or "Finance" that are at an advanced stage of their studies.

Exam

TBA. (See Moodle, for the dates of and further information on the exam).

DAV Certificate

Within this lecture it is possible to achieve the certificate of the German actuarial society (Deutsche Aktuar Vereinigung DAV) in "Wirtschaftliches und rechtliches Umfeld" (PO 4). Note that this certificate is equivalent to "Versicherungswirtschaftslehre" (PO 3).

This certificate is a basic requirement for becoming an actuary in Germany.

See Moodle, for the requirements for achieving the DAV certificate and for further information on the DAV supplement course and exam.

Literature

The main textbook

  • Zweifel, P. and R. Eisen (2012), Insurance Economics, Springer.

Further reading

  • Farny, D. (2006), Versicherungsbetriebslehre, 4. u. überarbeitete Auflage, Karlsruhe: Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft.
  • Felderer, B. und S. Homburg (2005), Makroökonomik und neue Makroökonomik , 9. Auflage, Berlin: Springer.
  • Schulenburg, J.-M. (2005), Versicherungsökonomik, ein Leitfaden für Studium und Praxis, Karlsruhe: Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft.
  • Vaughan, J. E. und T. Vaughan (2003), Fundamentals of Risk and Insurance, 9. Edition, Wileys & Sons.
  • Zweifel, P. und R. Eisen (2003), Versicherungsökonomie, 2. u. verbesserte Auflage - Berlin et al: Springer.

"Semesterapparat"