Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper studies the causes of the low development of the insurance sector in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, particularly for long term insurance. The paper shows that life and non-life premiums, as well as assets, are very low relative to expected levels given per capita income and demographic characteristics, and examines the causes of such poor performance. There is a wide range of factors constraining the development of the industry, including the absence of mandatory insurance in key areas, the predominant presence of the state in some countries, gaps in regulation and supervision, unsupportive tax regimes, fragmented market structures, a chronic lack of suitably skilled people, as well as the absence of products that conform with cultural/religious preferences, especially in the case of life insurance. The lack of development of the insurance sector is a matter of concern, as research shows that the sector can contribute to both financial and economic development. Key recommendations to accelerate the development of the sector include wider introduction of mandatory insurance lines that have clear positive externalities, continuing the privatization process for government owned insurers, employing non capital techniques to force rationalization of insurance sectors with too many small and inefficient players, removing tax distortions, taking steps to stabilize motor third party liability markets (typically the largest line of business), strengthening reporting and disclosure, regulating banc-assurance, improving consumer protection, further developing Takaful long term insurance ('Family Insurance'), and establishing regional centers of excellence for skills development.

Climate Change Economics --- Debt Markets --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Human Capital --- Insurance & Risk Mitigation --- Insurance Law --- Insurance Market --- Insurance Sector --- Mandatory Insurance --- Private Sector Development --- Takaful Insurance --- Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Region

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Why should countries buy expensive catastrophe insurance? Abstracting from risk aversion or hedging motives, this paper shows that catastrophe insurance may have a catalytic role on external finance. Such effect is particularly strong in those middle-income countries that face financial constraints when hit by a shock or in its anticipation. Insurance makes defaults less appealing, relaxes countries' borrowing constraint, increases their creditworthiness, and enhances their access to capital markets. Catastrophe lending facilities providing "cheap" reconstruction funds in the aftermath of a natural disaster weaken but do not eliminate the demand for insurance.

Access to capital --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Capital markets --- Catastrophe bond --- Catastrophe bonds --- Coordination failures --- Creditworthiness --- Debt Markets --- Defaults --- Developing countries --- Economic development --- Emerging Markets --- External finance --- Fair price --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Intermediation --- Insurance --- Insurance market --- International bank --- Issuance --- Labor Policies --- Levy --- Natural disaster --- Natural disasters --- Private Sector Development --- Risk aversion --- Social Protections and Labor --- Sovereign default

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

insurance statistics methodology --- actuarial computations methodology --- demographic statistics in insurance --- statistical investigations of insurance market --- insurance markets development --- financial solvency of the insurance companies --- Insurance companies --- Finance --- Companies, Insurance --- Insurance agencies --- Insurance carriers --- Insurers --- Financial institutions --- Insurance --- Actuarial science --- Statistical methods --- Mathematics --- Risk management --- Assurance (Insurance) --- Coverage, Insurance --- Indemnity insurance --- Insurance coverage --- Insurance industry --- Insurance protection --- Mutual insurance --- Underwriting --- Statistics --- Compagnies d'assurances --- Finances --- Finance.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Over the past three decades, economic sociology has been revealing how culture shapes economic life even while economic facts affect social relationships. This work has transformed the field into a flourishing and increasingly influential discipline. No one has played a greater role in this development than Viviana Zelizer, one of the world's leading sociologists. Economic Lives synthesizes and extends her most important work to date, demonstrating the full breadth and range of her field-defining contributions in a single volume for the first time. Economic Lives shows how shared cultural understandings and interpersonal relations shape everyday economic activities. Far from being simple responses to narrow individual incentives and preferences, economic actions emerge, persist, and are transformed by our relations to others. Distilling three decades of research, the book offers a distinctive vision of economic activity that brings out the hidden meanings and social actions behind the supposedly impersonal worlds of production, consumption, and asset transfer. Economic Lives ranges broadly from life insurance marketing, corporate ethics, household budgets, and migrant remittances to caring labor, workplace romance, baby markets, and payments for sex. These examples demonstrate an alternative approach to explaining how we manage economic activity--as well as a different way of understanding why conventional economic theory has proved incapable of predicting or responding to recent economic crises. Providing an important perspective on the recent past and possible futures of a growing field, Economic Lives promises to be widely read and discussed.

Economics --- Social values. --- Economic sociology --- Socio-economics --- Socioeconomics --- Sociology of economics --- Sociological aspects. --- Social aspects --- Values --- Sociology --- Social values --- Sociological aspects --- E-books --- Karl Marx. --- United States. --- adoption market. --- adult-run enterprises. --- asset transfer. --- asset transfers. --- baby markets. --- baby selling. --- capitalism. --- carework. --- child insurance market. --- children's labor. --- children. --- circuits. --- commerce. --- commercial markets. --- commodification. --- compensation. --- consumption. --- credit associations. --- cultural meaning. --- cultural resistance. --- cultural understanding. --- culture. --- currency. --- death. --- distribution. --- domestic money. --- earmarking. --- economic activities. --- economic activity. --- economic life. --- economic models. --- economic organizations. --- economic performance. --- economic practices. --- economic processes. --- economic sociology. --- economic transactions. --- economic value. --- economy. --- entitlements. --- ethical codes. --- ethical questions. --- ethics. --- ethnicвacial communities. --- exchange. --- exploitation. --- friendship. --- gifts. --- households. --- immigrant enterprises. --- insurance policies. --- interpersonal relations. --- intimacy. --- intimate labor. --- intimate relations. --- intimate relationships. --- kinship. --- life insurance. --- market money. --- market transactions. --- markets. --- married women. --- migrants. --- monetary payments. --- monetary transactions. --- monetary transfers. --- money. --- neclassical economics. --- neoclassical economics. --- organizational performance. --- paid care. --- payment. --- personal relations. --- power. --- production. --- remittance networks. --- retail. --- risky exchanges. --- sacralization. --- sexual intimacy. --- sexual relationships. --- social arrangements. --- social order. --- social relations. --- social relationships. --- sociology. --- solidarity. --- special monies. --- surrogacy market. --- transactions. --- unpaid care. --- valuation. --- work. --- Economics - Sociological aspects --- Social Values --- Social values - Economic aspects --- Culture - Economic aspects

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Although weather shocks are a major source of income fluctuation, most of the world's poor lack insurance coverage against them. Absence of formal insurance contributes to poverty traps, as investment decisions are conflicted with risk management ones: risk-averse farmers tend to underinvest and produce lower yielding yet safer crops. In the past few years, weather index insurance has gained increasing attention as an effective tool to provide small-scale farmers coverage against aggregate shocks. However, there is little empirical evidence about its effectiveness. This paper studies the effect of the recently introduced rainfall-indexed insurance on farmers' productivity, risk management strategies, as well as per capita income and expenditure in Mexico. The identification strategy takes advantage of the variation across counties and across time in which the insurance was rolled-out. The analysis finds that the presence of insurance in treated counties has significant and positive effects on maize productivity. Similarly, there is a positive association between the presence of insurance in the municipality and rural households' per capita expenditure and income, although no significant relation is found between the presence of insurance and the number of hectares destined for maize production.

Administrative Costs --- Adverse Selection --- Agricultural Development --- Agricultural Insurance --- Agricultural Land --- Agricultural Policy --- Agricultural Production --- Agricultural Productivity --- Agricultural Technology --- Agriculture --- Basis Risk --- Beneficiaries --- Cash Crops --- Cash Transfer Programs --- Cash Transfers --- Checks --- Claims --- Communal Land --- Consumption Smoothing --- Contracts --- Counterfactual --- Covariate Shocks --- Coverage --- Credit --- Crop Insurance --- Crop Varieties --- Crops & Crop Management Systems --- Debt Markets --- Development Economics --- Drought --- Durable --- Durable Assets --- Economics --- Effects --- Efficiency --- Equity --- Exchange --- Expenditure --- Extreme Poverty --- Famine --- Farmers --- Female Labor --- Female Labor Force --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Support --- Guarantee --- Household Head --- Household Income --- Household Survey --- Illiteracy --- Implicit Contracts --- Incentives --- Income --- Income Smoothing --- Indemnity --- Indemnity Payments --- Infant Mortality --- Information --- Insurance --- Insurance & Risk Mitigation --- Insurance Company --- Insurance Contracts --- Insurance Coverage --- Insurance Market --- Insurance Policies --- Insurance Premiums --- Insurance Product --- Insurances --- Insurers --- Interest --- International Bank --- Investment --- Investment Decisions --- Irrigation --- Labor --- Labor Force --- Labor Policies --- Lack of Infrastructure --- Land Quality --- Land Size --- Loans --- Loss --- Malnutrition --- Management --- Market --- Market Failures --- Measures --- Minimum Wages --- Moral Hazard --- Mortality --- Organizations --- Outcomes --- Policies --- Policyholders --- Political Economy --- Poor --- Poor Rural Household --- Poverty --- Poverty Index --- Poverty Levels --- Poverty Reduction --- Premiums --- Private Insurance --- Private Insurance Companies --- Production --- Production of Cash Crops --- Productivity --- Productivity Growth --- Profit --- Programs --- Property Rights --- Rates --- Real Income --- Reinsurance --- Reinsurance Markets --- Rights --- Risk --- Risk Exposure --- Risk Management --- Risk Management Strategies --- Risk Sharing --- Risk Sharing Arrangements --- Risk Taking --- Risk Transfer --- Risks --- Running Water --- Rural --- Rural Areas --- Rural Household --- Rural Level --- Rural Population --- Rural Poverty --- Rural Poverty Reduction --- Rural Settings --- Social Protections and Labor --- Standards --- Supply --- Theory --- Training --- Transfer Programs --- Transfers --- Value --- Wages