Insurance and actuarial studies Books

Book SynopsisA Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller "Ambitious and readable... an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism. " -The New York Times "An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book.Trade ReviewAGAINST THE GODS appeared in the "Washington Is Also Reading..." section of The Washington Post Book World. The book is described as, "A comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, from ancient gamblers in Greece to modern chaos theory."-The Washington Post Book World, September 20, 1998Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 TO 1200: BEGINNINGS 1. The Winds of the Greeks and the Roleof the Dice 11 2. As Easy as I, II, III 23 1200–1700: A THOUSAND OUTSTANDING FACTS 3. The Renaissance Gambler 39 4. The French Connection 57 5. The Remarkable Notions of the Remarkable Notions Man 73 1700–1900: MEASUREMENT UNLIMITED 6. Considering the Nature of Man 99 7. The Search for Moral Certainty 116 8. The Supreme Law of Unreason 135 9. The Man with the Sprained Brain 152 10. Peapods and Perils 172 11. The Fabric of Felicity 187 1900–1960: CLOUDS OF VAGUENESS AND THE DEMAND FOR PRECISION 12. The Measure of Our Ignorance 197 13. The Radically Distinct Notion 215 14. The Man Who Counted Everything Except Calories 231 15. The Strange Case of the Anonymous Stockbroker 247 DEGREES OF BELIEF:EXPLORING UNCERTAINTY 16. The Failure of Invariance 269 17. The Theory Police 284 18. The Fantastic System of Side Bets 304 19. Awaiting the Wildness 329 Notes 339 Bibliography 353 Name Index 365 Subject Index 369

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Book SynopsisMaster the skills needed for medical coding with Green's 3-2-1 CODE IT! 2024 EDITION. Updated to reflect the most recent code sets and coding guidelines, this easy-to-use guide is ideal for anyone just beginning medical coding. Updates incorporate the latest changes to ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, CPT and HCPCS Level II code sets. The text's well-organized, intuitive approach begins with diagnosis coding before walking you through coding procedures and services. Separate chapters differentiate inpatient and outpatient coding, general and specific ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS coding guidelines, HCPCS Level II coding and CPT coding and guidelines. Examples, clearly defined terms and printed and digital practice activities help you master concepts. Computer-assisted coding cases and professional tools such as encoder software help you prepare for professional coding credentials.Table of Contents1. Overview of Coding. 2. Introduction to ICD-10-CM Coding and Conventions. 3. ICD-10-CM Chapter-Specific Coding Guidelines: ICD-10-CM Chapters 1���10. 4. ICD-10-CM Chapter-Specific Coding Guidelines: ICD-10-CM Chapters 11���22. 5. ICD-10-CM Physician Office and Outpatient Coding. 6. Introduction to ICD-10-PCS Coding, Conventions, and Section Coding Guidelines. 7. ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS Hospital Inpatient Coding. 8. HCPCS Level II Coding. 9. Introduction to CPT Coding. 10. CPT Evaluation and Management. 11. CPT Anesthesia. 12. CPT Surgery I. 13. CPT Surgery II. 14. CPT Surgery III. 15. CPT Surgery IV. 16. CPT Surgery V. 17. CPT Radiology. 18. CPT Pathology and Laboratory. 19. CPT Medicine. 20. Insurance and Reimbursement. Bibliography. Glossary. Index.

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Book Synopsis‘A Guide to Trade Credit Insurance’ is a reference book on trade credit insurance, written from an international perspective. It is a compilation of contributions from various authors and reviewers drawn from ICISA member companies. The book provides an overview of the whole process regarding trade credit insurance, including the history of trade credit insurance, trade credit insurance providers, the underwriting process, premium calculation, claims handling, case studies and a glossary of terminology.Table of ContentsForeword; Introduction; Disclaimer; 1. What is trade?; 2. What is trade credit insurance?; 3. Product types; 4. Risk types; 5. Typical set-up of a trade credit insurance contract; 6. Premium, the price for cover; 7. Day-to-day policy management; 8. Buyer risk underwriting in trade credit insurance; 9. Debt collection; 10. Imminent loss and indemnification; 11. Renewal, expiry, termination of a policy; 12. Single risk business; 13. The single risk insurance market: Private and public players; 14. Reinsurance of Trade Credit Insurance; Trade Credit Insurance resources; Glossary of trade credit terminology

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Book SynopsisThe frequency and intensity of natural disasters—such as wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and storms—is on the rise, threatening our way of life and our livelihoods. Managing this growing risk will be central to economic and social progress in the coming decades. Insurance, an often confusing and unpopular tool, will be critical to successfully emerging from the effects of these crises. Its traditional role is to protect us from unforeseen and unanticipated risk, but as currently structured, insurance cannot adequately respond to these types of threats. How can we improve insurance to provide consistent and sufficient help following all disasters? How do we use insurance not just to help us recover, but also to help us prevent disasters in the first place? And how can insurance help us achieve broader social and environmental goals? Understanding Disaster Insurance provides an accessible introduction to the complexities—and exciting possibilities—of risk transfer markets in the U.S. and around the world. Carolyn Kousky, a leading researcher on disaster risk and insurance, explains how traditional insurance markets came to be structured and why they fall short in meeting the needs of a world coping with climate change. She then offers realistic, yet hopeful, examples of new approaches. With examples ranging from individual entrepreneurs to multi-country collaborations, she shows how innovative thinking and creative applications of insurance-based mechanisms can improve recovery outcomes for people and their communities. She also explores the role of insurance in supporting policy goals beyond disaster recovery, such as nature-positive approaches for larger environmental impact. The book holds up the possibility that new risk transfer markets, brought to scale, could help create more equitable and sustainable economies. Insurance and risk transfer markets can be a powerful tool for adapting to climate change, yet they are frequently misunderstood. Many find insurance confusing or even problematic and ineffective. Understanding Disaster Insurance is a useful guidebook for policymakers, innovators, students, and other decision makers working to secure a resilient future—and anyone affected by wind, fire, rain, or flood.Table of ContentsTable of Contents Introduction PART 1: Disasters, their Economic Consequences, and the Role of Insurance Chapter 1: The Costs of an Increasingly Risky World -When Risks Materialize -Securing Financial Resilience Chapter 2: What is Insurance and What is it Not? -The Role of Insurance in the Economy -What Insurance is Not -The Disaster Insurance Protection Gap Chapter 3: How Does Insurance Work and Why are Disasters Difficult? -How Insurance Works -The Challenges with Insuring Disasters Chapter 4: Public Disaster Insurance -Public Sector Disaster Insurance -Public Reinsurance and Backstops -Supportive Programming Chapter 5: Deciding When to Insure -Understanding Risks -Biased Thinking -The Decision to Insure: Beyond Risk Levels PART 2: The Structure and Operation of Disaster Risk Transfer Markets Chapter 6: The Structure of Insurance Markets -State Regulation -Policy Distribution -The chain of risk transfer Chapter 7: The Cost of Disaster Insurance -Catastrophe Models -Premium and Incentives for Risk Reduction -Insurance Affordability -Market Cycles and Post-Disaster Dynamics Chapter 8: The Insurance-Linked Securities Market -Catastrophe Bonds -The Use of Cat Bonds by the Public Sector -Are Cat Bonds Always a Good Idea? The Case of Pandemic Bonds Chapter 9: Will There be a Climate-Induced Insurability Crisis? -Stress in markets -Policy response PART 3: Innovation to Unlock the Potential of Disaster Insurance Chapter 10. Improving Disaster Recovery with New Business Models and Products -Challenges with Recovery -A New Business Model -Parametric Models to the Rescue -Expanding Those with Coverage through Community Policies Chapter 11: Inclusive Insurance -Microinsurance -Meso-Level Insurance -Sovereign Insurance Pools -Out of Harm’s Way Chapter 12: Insurance to Prevent Disasters -Building Back Better Chapter 13: Insurance for a Nature Positive World -Reflecting the Protection of Nature in Insurance -Insuring Natural Systems -Nature Positive Risk Transfer Structures, Underwriting, and Investments Chapter 14: The Future of Risk Transfer: Final Thoughts

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Book SynopsisA hands-on and tech-aware exploration of operational risk management In Integrated Operational Risk Management: Tools, Techniques and Meeting Regulatory Expectations, distinguished risk and compliance practitioners Jimi Hinchliffe and Andrew Sheen deliver a practical discussion of operational risk management (ORM) with a pronounced focus on operational resilience and regulatory context, history, and expectations. The book offers a comprehensive explanation of how to create a holistic framework for ORM that breaks down the silos in non-financial risk management, improves efficiency, avoids duplication, and adds value to the business. The authors examine ORM's place within enterprise risk management and describes the origins and evolution of ORM as a discipline. It considers the roles of the BCBS, UK FSA and the Institute of Operational Risk. You'll also find: A variety of ORM tools and frameworks you can implement immediately to incorporate best practices on governance, risk assessment,

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsBusiness Snapshots xxiii Preface xxv Chapter 1 Introduction: Risk-Return Trade-offs 1 Part 1: Financial Institutions 23 Chapter 2 Banks 25 Chapter 3 Insurance Companies and Pension Plans 47 Chapter 4 Fund Managers 75 Part 2: Financial Markets 97 Chapter 5 Financial Instruments 99 Chapter 6 The OTC Derivatives Market 129 Chapter 7 Securitization and the Global Financial Crisis 145 Chapter 8 Volatility 163 Chapter 9 Correlations and Copulas 193 Chapter 10 Valuation and Scenario Analysis 217 Part 3: Market Risk 231 Chapter 11 Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall 233 Chapter 12 Historical Simulation and Extreme Value Theory 257 Chapter 13 Model-Building Approach 279 Chapter 14 Interest Rate Risk 293 Chapter 15 Derivatives Risk 319 Chapter 16 Scenario Analysis and Stress Testing 347 Part 4: Credit Risk 365 Chapter 17 Estimating Default Probabilities 367 Chapter 18 xVAs 393 Chapter 19 Credit Value at Risk 413 Part 5: Other Risks 429 Chapter 20 Operational Risk 431 Chapter 21 Liquidity Risk 449 Chapter 22 Model Risk Management 477 Chapter 23 Climate Risk, ESG, and Sustainability 497 Chapter 24 Enterprise Risk Management 513 Part 6: Regulation 531 Chapter 25 Basel I, Basel II, and Solvency II 533 Chapter 26 Basel II.5, Basel III, and Other Post-Crisis Changes 563 Chapter 27 Fundamental Review of the Trading Book 585 Chapter 28 Economic Capital and RAROC 599 Part 7: Other Topics 617 Chapter 29 Financial Innovation 619 Chapter 30 Risk Management Mistakes to Avoid 641 Part 8: Appendices 653 Appendix A Compounding Frequencies for Interest Rates 655 Appendix B Zero Rates, Forward Rates, and Zero-Coupon Yield Curves 659 Appendix C Valuing Forward and Futures Contracts 663 Appendix D Valuing Swaps 665 Appendix E Valuing European Options 669 Appendix F Valuing American Options 673 Appendix G Taylor Series Expansions 677 Appendix H Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues 681 Appendix I Principal Components Analysis 685 Appendix J Manipulation of Credit Transition Matrices 687 Appendix K Valuation of Credit Default Swaps 689 Appendix L Synthetic CDOs and Their Valuation 693 Appendix M SIMM 697 Answers to Questions and Problems 701 Glossary 743 RMFI Software 771 Table for N(x) When x ≥ 0 775 Table for N(x) When x ≤ 0 777 Index 779

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the growing role and importance of 'Protection Gap Entities' (PGEs). The authors use practical examples from different countries to explain how PGEs step in to maintain disaster insurance and how their work can, but does not always, improve financial and physical resilience to disaster.Trade ReviewAs the rising frequency, severity and variety of catastrophic loss events challenge the efficacy - and perhaps even the relevance - of the traditional insurance model, the authors identify and analyze a diverse set of promising but ad hoc collaborative programs for managing catastrophe risks. From this survey emerges a practical framework through which governments, the private sector, and impacted communities may constructively engage to develop holistic and sustainable solutions to some of today's most difficult-to-insure risks. * Jason Schupp, Founder & Managing Member, Center for Better Insurance *How can individuals, cities and societies insure against increasingly extreme disasters? Protection Gap Entities, as organizational innovations created between market and state, are an answer. This important and superbly clear book shows how PGEs aim to correct insurance market disequilibrium and to re-imagine insurability in a riskier world. Based on immersion in PGEs across the globe, the authors demonstrate the varied operational challenges they face as they try to save insurance from its own paradoxes. But this is much more than a book about insurance; its subject matter is urgent and existential. For this reason, it should be read widely by social scientists and policymakers * Michael Power, Professor of Accounting, London School of Economics and Political Science *Who pays for our increasing global disasters? This brilliantly researched book highlights how this complex problem depends on a fine-tuned balancing of paradoxical tensions. Anyone that wants to make more transparent the hidden realities of disaster responses, financial markets and the paradoxical tensions that inform them must read this book * Wendy Smith. Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management, University of Delaware *This timely book is essential reading for anybody with a stake in insurability at a time of intensifying natural disasters: from risk specialists to those interested in building resilient systems in the face of climate change, such as governments, development and humanitarian organizations. The way the authors discuss Protection Gap Entities (PGEs) via interlinked paradoxes is illuminating. Readers will learn to appreciate the fine balance on which insurance is built, encompassing questions of knowledge, responsibility, and market structure. I would use the authors' conceptual framework not only to discuss specialist topics around disaster insurability, but also to teach insurance fundamentals to diverse audiences, from technical experts to policymakers. * Andreas Tsanakas, Professor of Risk Management, City, University of London *Many have observed the limitations of private insurance when it comes to financial protection from disasters. When people face disasters without insurance, harm and heartache multiplies. With this book, we finally have the tools to understand why those limitations exist and the critical role played by Protection Gap Entities (PGEs) when those limitations cannot be overcome by the private sector alone. This book is essential reading; not only for what it teaches us about the complex landscape of insurance today, but also for the ways it pushes us to think creatively about how to build more sustainable and humane forms of social protection in the future. A timely, stimulating, major contribution. * Rebecca Elliott, London School of Economics and Political Science *The frequency and intensity of weather extremes is increasing due to climate change. Most affected regions are well advised to establish new and strengthen already existing disaster risk pooling arrangements. The book provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of Protection Gap Entities (PGEs) in helping close the disaster loss gap, not least as they comprehensively convene risk owners and often incentivise prevention and preparedness. A must read for decision makers aiming to strengthen disaster resilience in a comprehensive and sustainable fashion * David N. Bresch, Professor for Weather and Climate Risks, ETH Zurich / MeteoSwiss *This book is essential and riveting reading for policymakers and risk professionals interested in how we build financial and physical resilience to disasters. It provides a ground-breaking exposition of the vital role public-private partnerships (Protection Gap Entities - PGEs) play in covering insurance protection gaps. It provides an insightful tour of developed and developing insurance markets confronting disasters from earthquake, flood, cyclone, and drought to terrorism. Based on an unprecedented multi-stakeholder dataset from 17 PGEs providing disaster insurance in 49 countries, Paula and her co-authors explain why PGEs are established, how they evolve, and imagine what future role they can play in enabling insurability in the face of escalating risk. * Julian Enoizi, Global Head of Public Sector Practice, Guy Carpenter *In face of extreme weather, terrorist attacks, seismological disasters, financial collapse, and other calamities, how can we do disaster insurance well? This timely and deeply researched book, based on hundreds of interviews and hours of fieldwork across multiple countries, provides essential learning lessons for academics and practitioners alike. An outstanding contribution to unveiling the complexities of the disaster insurance system, it also illuminates crucially how cross-sector collaborations can be leveraged to bring about economic stability and greater equity. * Nina Bandelj, Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Irvine *This book reimagines disaster insurance at times where the world is facing compounding crises that can further widen the protection gap. As the climate and disaster risk finance and insurance landscape is quickly evolving, especially in emerging markets and developing economies, this book provides the reader with the right tools to understand how protection gap entities can help governments, firms and households access disaster insurance solutions and reduce the protection gap. * Olivier Mahul, Global Lead and Program Manager, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program, World Bank *Disaster Insurance Reimagined: Protection in a Time of Increasing Risk is a must-read book for all catastrophe insurance professionals and all others interested in the role insurance can play in dealing with the growing loss from both the rise in exposure and climate change. Clever and easy to read, this work provides framework, sets the issues at stake and makes explicit the underlying philosophy by which catastrophe insurance is provided in very different jurisdictions. * Francisco Espejo Gil, Consorcio de Compensacion de Seguros *Table of Contents1: Protection Gap Entities: Saving insurance from itself? 2: Paradoxes of origination: Between too little and too much knowledge 3: Shouldering the burden: Who controls the market and has responsibility for protection? 4: Problem solved? Between static remits and evolving environments 5: Limiting loss: Between financial and physical resilience 6: Reimagining disaster insurance: Towards a new equilibrium Appendix A: The disaster risk transfer process Appendix B: Methodology Glossary

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Book SynopsisShareholder litigation and class action suits play a key role in protecting investors and regulating big businesses. This book demonstrates how corporations use insurance to avoid responsibility for corporate misconduct, dangerously undermining the impact of securities laws.Trade Review"This is an extraordinary book, written in a clear and readable style. Until now, those of us in the field had reasons for concern about litigation dynamics and the role of insurance, but no real evidence.... More than any contribution to the field of corporate litigation in the last decade, this book breaks new ground." - Donald C. Langevoort, Georgetown University Law Center"

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Book Synopsis'Embracing risk' offers an original approach to risk, insurance and responsibility, the provocative and wide-ranging essays demonstrate that risk has moved well beyond its origins in the insurance trade to become a central organizing principle of social and cultural life.

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Book SynopsisA study of key aspects of the economics of the property-casualty insurance industry. The volume explores areas such as external financing and insurance cycles, performance of stock and mutual insurance companies, rate regulation and the system of regulating insurance companies in the USA.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction by David F. Bradford 1: External Financing and Insurance Cycles Anne Gron, Deborah Lucas. 2: The Effects of Tax Law Changes on Property-Casualty Insurance Prices David F. Bradford, Kyle D. Logue. 3: The Causes and Consequences of Rate Regulation in the Auto Insurance Industry Dwight M. Jaffee, Thomas Russell. 4: Rate Regulation and the Industrial Organization of Automobile Insurance Susan J. Suponcic, Sharon Tennyson. 5: The Costs of Insurance Company Failures James G. Bohn, Brian J. Hall. 6: Organizational Form and Insurance Company Performance: Stocks versus Mutuals Patricia Born, William M. Gentry, W. Kip Viscusi [et al.]. Contributors Author Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisCharts the social and cultural life of private insurance in postwar America, showing how insurance institutions and actuarial practices played crucial roles in bringing social, political, and economic neoliberalism into everyday life. Actuarial thinking is everywhere in contemporary America, an often unnoticed byproduct of the postwar insurance industry's political and economic influence. Calculations of risk permeate our institutions, influencing how we understand and manage crime, education, medicine, finance, and other social issues. Caley Horan's remarkable book charts the social and economic power of private insurers since 1945, arguing that these institutions' actuarial practices played a crucial and unexplored role in insinuating the social, political, and economic frameworks of neoliberalism into everyday life. Analyzing insurance marketing, consumption, investment, and regulation, Horan asserts that postwar America's obsession with safety and security fueled the exponential expansion of the insurance industry and the growing importance of risk management in other fields. Horan shows that the rise and dissemination of neoliberal values did not happen on its own: they were the result of a project to unsocialize risk, shrinking the state's commitment to providing support, and heaping burdens upon the people often least capable of bearing them. Insurance Era is a sharply researched and fiercely written account of how and why private insurance and its actuarial market logic came to be so deeply lodged in American visions of social welfare.Trade Review“Insurance Era brilliantly captures the power that insurance came to hold over Americans’ relationship to risk, security, themselves, and one another in the twentieth century. No other book better explains how and why the private triumphed over the public, and the individual over the collective, in recent American life. With great historical imagination, Horan has utterly recast the history of the postwar United States as the origins of our own time.” * Jonathan Ira Levy, University of Chicago *“History at its best raises fundamental questions: What is fair? Who is responsible for whom? And who gets to decide? Insurance Era is such a history, exposing the central role the private insurance industry played in answering those questions for twentieth-century Americans. As Horan shows, the industry used its huge capital resources to underwrite suburban development and drain cities of their tax bases; it shaped who had access to insurance, who was excluded from such security, and the consequences of that exclusion. Most importantly, the industry conditioned Americans to think of risk pools as objective and apolitical, a matter of personal responsibility. We continue to live in this insurance era, but in uncovering its history, Horan opens a pathway to a more egalitarian vision of human community.” * Barbara Young Welke, University of Minnesota *“The insurance industry promised to provide Americans with much-needed security, but as Horan shows in this brilliant new book, its efforts only heightened the risk of individuals and deepened patterns of discrimination for marginalized groups, paving the way for the insecurities of the neoliberal age.” * Kevin M. Kruse, Princeton University *"Recommended. . . Horan covers the insurance industry's evolution since the 1930s, a time when the public sector appeared poised to dominate the provision of insurance and an underexplored era in US risk management. . . . The book will therefore interest social, cultural, and business historians." * Choice *"A useful and timely account of the postwar insurance industry’s efforts to promote self-made security and the logic of actuarial fairness upon which that form of security depends. . . In keeping with much of the insurance and society literature to which Horan makes a worthy contribution, Insurance Era is thoroughly interdisciplinary, engaging with work by sociologists, legal scholars, and political scientists." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"The insurance industry has been a discrete yet powerful actor in modern capitalist societies. Insurance Era skillfully dissects its role in privatizing security, investing in the built environment, and reproducing discrimination in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. It is a welcome addition to the field of American insurance history." * Enterprise and Society *"Horan makes an important contribution to a growing literature on insurance history. Insurance Era also makes a potentially dry subject come vibrantly alive by situating economic ideas in their cultural contexts and weaving legal and social theory into the historical narrative. Horan’s clear and beautiful language propels her readers through her deep dive into the archive of insurance operations and excavation of complicated actuarial concepts. Ultimately, she shows how private insurance taught Americans to conceive of themselves and others in actuarial terms, transformed the built environment, fractured social identities, and deepened socio-economic inequalities." * Jotwell *"In this book Caley Horan explores the marketing, investment, and underwriting practices of the insurance industry in the United States, with a particular focus on events after World War II. . . . Horan’s thought-provoking book asks a good question: what is the role of flawed experience rating in reinforcing discrimination, and how can the problem be fixed?" * EH.net *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Selling “Self-Made” Security Chapter 1: Insurance Marketing in the Wake of the New Deal Chapter 2: “Facing the Future’s Risks”: Governing through Education and Public Service Part II: Investing in Privatization Chapter 3: “Public Enterprises in Private Hands”: Investing in Urban Renewal Chapter 4: “A Mighty Pump”: Financing Suburbanization Part III: Defending Discrimination Chapter 5: “Communities without Hope”: Urban Crisis and Insurance Redlining Chapter 6: The Unisex Insurance Debate and the Triumph of Actuarial Fairness Epilogue: Imagining Insurance Futures Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn interesting and educational look at risk and insurance, and Powers's provocative findings provide an idiosyncratic, compelling perspective worth reading. -- James K. Hammitt, Harvard University and Toulouse School of Economics, and coeditor of The Reality of Precaution: Comparing Risk Regulation in the Unites States and Europe Powers has a unique talent for explaining complex matters in a simple way, and his book lays out the fundamental insurance and risk concepts that are essential for success in today's chaotic environment. Even better, Acts of God and Man is enjoyable and a fun read--rare qualities in risk and insurance literature. -- Denis Kessler, Chairman and CEO, SCOR Group It is a pleasure to write a foreword for this book of both scholarship and humor. It factors in the various concepts of risk, but provides both theory and practical guidance on those 'aloof risks' suitable for insurance. Michael R. Powers manages to create a text for students of insurance while raising the deep philosophical problems in the formulation and application of probability theory. -- From the Foreword by Martin Shubik, professor emeritus, Yale University, and author of The Theory of Money and Financial Institutions Powers entices readers with an entertaining and engaging narrative, and writes with such clarity and skill that readers almost won't notice the strides he makes in complex issues and dense concepts. Particularly given all the turgid materials on risk and insurance, Acts of God and Man is a breath of fresh air and an impressive achievement. -- Michael Morrissey, president and CEO, International Insurance Society

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1979, Morals and Markets Is a pathbreaking study exploring the development of life insurance in the United States. Viviana A. Rotman Zelizer combines economic history and a sociological perspective to advance a novel interpretation of the life insurance industry.Trade ReviewA milestone that launched two major areas of research: on the morality of economic action (a topic central to Adam Smith but abandoned by his successors); and on the normalization and institutionalization of new economic forms. As America debates the moral dimensions of health insurance, and as the world copes with the rise of bitcoin and other private currencies, this classic study, graced by impeccable research and stunning insights, has never been more relevant. -- Paul DiMaggio, New York University Viviana Zelizer has revolutionized thinking about the modern economy. While Polanyi offered an asterisk to history by detailing how the British elite was convinced to relinquish its moral responsibility for peasants and accept a market for free labor, Zelizer shows how makers of all kinds of new markets have to build moral underpinnings. Morals and Markets will never go out of style. -- Frank Dobbin, Harvard University Life insurance seemed like such a simple and obvious product, until Zelizer pointed out that it is not. When we learn that it was once shameful to purchase what is now a moral obligation, we are brought up short by the shifting social and symbolic content of consumption. There are rewarding revelations in every chapter of this groundbreaking work. -- Mark Granovetter, Stanford University This book is as fresh in its argument and creative approach as when it originally appeared in 1979. The argument is both sociologically and existentially relevant, as in all of Zelizer's work. The approach can be characterized as a skillful and unique way of theorizing in economic sociology that draws equally on values and social relations. Morals and Markets is a gem and a classic. -- Richard Swedberg, Cornell UniversityTable of ContentsForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Historical and Economic Background2. The Persistent Puzzle3. A Comparative Perspective4. The Impact of Values and Ideologies on the Adoption of Social Innovations: Life Insurance and Death5. Life, Chance, and Destiny6. Marketing Life: Moral Persuasion and Business Enterprise7. The Life Insurance Agent: Problems in Occupational Prestige and ProfessionalizationConclusionsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisRebecca Elliott explores how families, communities, and governments confront problems of loss as the climate changes. She offers the first in-depth account of the politics and social effects of the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, in an incisive consideration of the dilemmas of moral economy underlying insurance.Trade ReviewIn this essential book, Rebecca Elliott narrates the history of the individualization of risk through an unlikely lens: the de-mutualization of flood insurance in the United States. As rising global temperatures wreak havoc on the climate, those living in the path of storms are increasingly left to deal with the consequences on their own. This is a rich and deeply human story about people and organizations going underwater, learning to make sense of loss and to become ‘resilient’—until the next wave. -- Marion Fourcade, author of Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990sUnderwater is a masterpiece of social and historical analysis, revealing the increasingly powerful and contested role of the insurance industry—through its rationalities, technologies, and moral economy—in an age of climate crisis. It opens on the impossible decision so many of us facing climate-driven catastrophes in the places we live must now make: to retreat or to remain. As Elliot shows in incisive, often painful detail, these decisions force us to reckon with multiple forms of loss—some measured in our ties to buildings, communities, landscapes, and ways of life, others in the dollar amounts of our insurance coverage and housing investments. These vital reckonings, meanwhile, differ depending on where we live, whether we own our homes, and how 'deserving' we are perceived to be—all variables profoundly shaped by race and class. Elliott compellingly situates these struggles within an emergent 'politics of loss'—itself the flip-side of ever more inadequate politics of sustainability. Disparities and precarities driven both by policy and escalating hazard have ushered in an engaged, often enraged 'climate public,' and wrought havoc in the insurance industry itself. Through this brilliant, moving, and elegantly written analysis, we see a space opening for radical reimagining. What if we reject the devolution of risk and individualizing logics of insurance and housing markets, and recognize our collective interdependence? Elliott leaves us with a crucial understanding: there can be no safer ground if we go it alone. -- Miriam Greenberg, coauthor of Crisis Cities: Disaster and Redevelopment in New York and New OrleansIn this lucidly written and brilliantly argued book, Rebecca Elliott takes us from the flooded basements of victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York—and we could add the West Coast aflame as I write—to a powerful cultural conflict standing between us and an urgently needed fix. Flood insurance. Premium costs. Risk classification. Zoning. Building standards. Buried in the ‘administrative decisions’ within each realm are momentous questions. Should the government step out and leave owners with deeply devalued homes, ‘free’ to rebuild at their own risk? Or, on the other hand, should the government bear the cost of climate denial when financial obligations spike high and flames and floods are upon us? This is a highly important book arriving at a crucial hour. Read it and pass it on. -- Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, a finalist for the National Book AwardUnderwater is a tragically timely, subtly scary, and completely essential book about living with loss in a climate-changed world. Elliott brings a sophisticated sociological perspective and a compassionate ethnographic eye to debates over how we protect ourselves and our neighbors as the ground shifts beneath our feet. A major contribution. -- Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic LifeUnderwater explores how Americans directly affected by storms like Hurricane Sandy have been forced to confront the impact climate change has on their homes, families, and communities. This path-breaking study shows that the terrain of these discussions, centered on struggles over arcane issues like insurance and flood maps, raises deeply political and moral questions about who should pay for and be responsible for the impacts of what will certainly be steadily worsening events. -- Neil Fligstein, University of California, BerkeleyThere is clearly a lot here for economic sociologists, as well as for scholars of natural disasters, cities and the built environment, and risk and insurance. * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsTimeline of EventsIntroduction: Insurance and the Problem of Loss in a Climate-Changed United States1. Transforming the Management of Loss: The Origins of the National Flood Insurance Program2. Losing Ground: Values at Risk in an American Floodplain3. Visions of Loss: Knowing and Pricing Flood Risk4. Shifting Responsibilities for Loss: National Reform of Flood Insurance5. Floodplain Futures: Trajectories of LossConclusion: What Do We Have to Lose?Methodological AppendixNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents1 The Rationale for and History of Coding 2 The Health Record as the Foundation of Coding 3 ICD-10-CM Format and Conventions 4 Basic Steps of Coding 5 General Coding Guidelines for Diagnosis 6 Introduction to ICD-10-PCS 7 General Coding Guidelines for Other Medical- and Surgical-Related Procedures and Ancillary Procedures 8 Coding Medical and Surgical Procedures 9 Symptoms, Signs, and Abnormal Clinical and Laboratory Findings Not Elsewhere Classified, and Z Codes (ICD-10-CM Chapters 18 and 21, Codes R00-R99, Z00-Z99) 10 Certain Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (ICD-10-CM Chapters 1 and 22, Codes A00-B99, U07.1, U09.9) 11 Neoplasms (ICD-10-CM Chapter 2, Codes C00-D49) 12 Diseases of the Blood and Blood-Forming Organs and Certain Disorders Involving the Immune Mechanism (ICD-10-CM Chapter 3, Codes D50-D89) 13 Endocrine, Nutritional, and Metabolic Diseases (ICD-10-CM Chapter 4, Codes E00-E89) 14 Mental, Behavioral, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ICD-10-CM Chapter 5, Codes F01-F99) 15 Diseases of the Nervous System, Diseases of the Eye and Adnexa, and Diseases of the Ear and Mastoid Process (ICD-10-CM Chapter 6, Codes G00-G99, Chapter 7,Codes H00-H59, and Chapter 8, Codes H60-H95) 16 Diseases of the Circulatory System (ICD-10-CM Chapter 9, Codes I00-I99) 17 Diseases of the Respiratory System (ICD-10-CM Chapters 10 and 22, Codes J00-J99, U07.0) 18 Diseases of the Digestive System (ICD-10-CM Chapter 11, Codes K00-K95) 19 Diseases of the Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue (ICD-10-CM Chapter 12, Codes L00-L99) 20 Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue (ICD-10-CM Chapter 13, Codes M00-M99) 21 Diseases of the Genitourinary System (ICD-10-CM Chapter 14, Codes N00-N99) 22 Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Puerperium (ICD-10-CM Chapter 15, Codes O00-O9A) 23 Certain Conditions Originating in the Perinatal Period, and Congenital Malformations, Deformations, and Chromosomal Abnormalities (ICD-10-CM Chapter 16, Codes P00-P96 and Chapter 17, Codes Q00-Q99) 24 Injury and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes and External Causes of Morbidity (ICD-10-CM Chapter 19, Codes S00-T88 and Chapter 20, Codes V00-Y99) 25 Burns, Adverse Effects, and Poisonings (ICD-10-CM Chapters 19 and 20, Codes S00-Y99) 26 Complications of Surgical and Medical Care GLOSSARY ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS ILLUSTRATION CREDITS INDEX

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Book SynopsisMaster today's most current 2020 CPT and HCPCS diagnostic and procedural coding as well as the other precise guidelines established by federal agencies, Medicare and the American Medical Association (AMA) with the most trusted source available -- Bowie's UNDERSTANDING CURRENT PROCEDURAL TERMINOLOGY AND HCPCS CODING SYSTEMS, 2020 EDITION. Updated every year to reflect the most current code sets and developments in the field, this edition integrates new case studies and new coding assignments drawn from actual professional experiences. Carefully illustrated procedures and current, interesting examples help you perfect procedural coding skills for all medical specialties and prepare you for today's certification exams. In addition, extensive hands-on practice with MindTap's new digital learning tools help you further prepare for procedural coding success.Table of Contents1. Introduction to Current Procedural Terminology. 2. Modifiers. 3. Evaluation and Management. 4. Anesthesia. 5. Surgery and the Integumentary System. 6. Musculoskeletal System. 7. Respiratory System. 8. Cardiovascular System. 9. Hemic and Lymphatic Systems. 10. Mediastinum and Diaphragm. 11. Digestive System. 12. Urinary System. 13. Male Genital System. 14. Female Genital System. 15. Maternity Care and Delivery. 16. Endocrine System. 17. Nervous System. 18. Eye and Ocular Adnexa. 19. Auditory System and Operating Microscope. 20. Radiology. 21. Pathology And Laboratory. 22. Medicine. 23. HCPCS Codes. Appendix I: Billing Forms. Appendix II: Surgical Positions. Appendix III: Abdominopelvic Divisions. Appendix IV: 1997 Documentation Guidelines for Evaluation and Management Services. Appendix V: 2017 Anesthesia Code Base Units. Appendix VI: Locality-Adjusted Anesthesia Conversion Factors as a Result of the CY 2017 Final Rule. Appendix VII: Case Studies. Glossary. Index.

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Book SynopsisMaster the latest 2020 ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS coding guidelines and new 2020 ICD-10 codes with Bowie's UNDERSTANDING ICD-10-CM AND ICD-10-PCS: A WORKTEXT, 2020 EDITION. This unique, hands-on worktext is updated every year to provide the latest comprehensive coverage of today's ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS diagnostic and procedural coding system. This edition's detail, yet easy-to-follow approach is packed with proven learning features and helpful tools to reinforce understanding. You immediately apply what you've learned with numerous professionally focused exercises, actual coding assignments and real case studies. Vivid color illustrations and the latest digital links to medical research websites demonstrate how a thorough knowledge of anatomy and disease processes can increase coding accuracy. Use this trusted resource to prepare for various certification exams as well as diagnostic and procedural coding success in today's medical environment.Table of Contents1. Introduction to Coding and Coding Professions. 2. An Overview of ICD-10-CM. 3. ICD-10-CM Coding Conventions. 4. Steps in Diagnostic Code Selection. 5. Diagnostic Coding Guidelines. 6. Infectious and Parasitic Diseases. 7. Neoplasms. 8. Diseases of the Blood and Blood-Forming Organs. 9. Endocrine, Nutritional, and Metabolic Diseases. 10. Mental, Behavioral, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 11. Diseases of the Nervous System. 12. Disorders of the Eye and Adnexa. 13. Diseases of the Ear and Mastoid Process. 14. Diseases of the Circulatory System. 15. Diseases of the Respiratory System. 16. Diseases of the Digestive System. 17. Diseases of the Skin and Subcutaneous Tissue. 18. Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System and Connective Tissue. 19. Diseases of the Genitourinary System. 20. Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Puerperium. 21. Certain Conditions Originating in the Perinatal Period. 22. Congenital Malformations, Deformations, and Chromosomal Abnormalities. 23. Symptoms, Signs, and Abnormal Clinical Laboratory Findings. 24. Injury, Poisoning, and Certain Other Consequences of External Causes. 25. External Causes of Morbidity. 26. Factors Influencing Health Status and Contact with Health Services. 27. Introduction to ICD-10-PCS. 28. Medical and Surgical Section. 29. Obstetrics Section. 30. Placement Section. 31. Administration Section. 32. Measurement and Monitoring Section. 33. Extracorporeal Assistance and Performance and Extracorporeal Therapies Sections. 34. Osteopathic, Other Procedures, and Chiropractic Sections. 35. Imaging, Nuclear Medicine, and Radiation Oncology Sections. 36. Physical Rehabilitation and Diagnostic Audiology Section. 37. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment. 38. New Technology Section.

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Book SynopsisStrengthen your skills and develop a solid foundation for professional success with Green's UNDERSTANDING HEALTH INSURANCE: A GUIDE TO BILLING AND REIMBURSEMENT, 2023 Edition. This reader-friendly, comprehensive resource provides a practical, up-to-date guide to current medical code sets and coding guidelines, preparing you to assign ICD-10-CM, CPT and HCPCS Level II 2023 codes; complete health insurance claims; and master key revenue management concepts. You'll focus on important topics such as managed care, legal and regulatory issues, coding systems and compliance, reimbursement methods, clinical documentation improvement, coding for medical necessity and common health insurance plans. The current edition introduces the MIPS Value Pathways; explains major changes for selecting codes in the CPT 2023 evaluation and management section; and clarifies key health insurance concepts such as risk adjustments, hierarchical condition category coding, patient portals, balance billing, coordination of benefits, third-party administrators, Medicare appeals process and whistleblowers. In addition, a helpful workbook provides hands-on assignments and case studies, while MindTap online resources offer interactive practice in completing CMS-1500 claims and assigning codes.Table of Contents1. Health Insurance Specialist Career. 2. Introduction to Health Insurance and Managed Care. 3. Introduction to Revenue Management. 4. Revenue Management: Insurance Claims, Denied Claims and Appeals and Credit and Collections. 5. Legal Aspects of Health Insurance and Reimbursement. 6. ICD-10-CM Coding. 7. CPT Coding. 8. HCPCS Level II Coding. 9. CMS Reimbursement Methodologies. 10. Coding Compliance, Clinical Documentation Improvement and Coding for Medical Necessity. 11. CMS-1500 and UB-04 Claims. 12. Commercial Insurance. 13. BlueCross BlueShield. 14. Medicare. 15. Medicaid. 16. TRICARE. 17. Workers��� Compensation. Appendices. Bibliography. Glossary. Index.

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Marine Insurance Law introduces and clearly explains all topics covered in undergraduate and postgraduate-level courses, offering students and those new to the area a comprehensive and accessible overview of this important topic in maritime law.Observing the general principles of the subject and structure and formation of insurance contracts, this text goes on to look at individual considerations in detail, including the duty of utmost good faith/fair presentation of the risk, insurable interest, terms of insurance contracts, warranties and conditions, brokers, the premium, causation and marine perils, losses, sue and labour, subrogation, fraudulent claims, and reinsurance. The third edition has been fully updated and expanded to cover additional pre-Marine Insurance Act 1906 (MIA 1906) cases, as well as the implications of the Insurance Act 2015 on the duty of fair presentation of the risk in business insurance and on the remedy for breach of a warranty. The reader

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An elegant and careful guide to thinking about personal and social economics, especially in a time of uncertainty. The timing is impeccable." -- Christine Kenneally - New York Times Book Review"Rarely is a book’s publication as well-timed as John Kay and Mervyn King’s Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making Beyond the Numbers." -- Joseph C. Sternberg - Wall Street Journal"In this profound yet practical book, Kay and King admit the obvious—that in crucial domains, we do not, will not, cannot know what is going on—and show, nevertheless, how to retain the ability to function." -- Paul Romer, Nobel laureate"Many books will make a reader better informed or smarter. This is one of very few that will make a reader much wiser. You will live differently and better after you grasp Kay and King’s seminal lessons about radical uncertainty." -- Lawrence H. Summers, US Treasury Secretary 1999-2001, and Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University"John Kay and Mervyn King want more people to grasp the old distinction between risk and uncertainty forgotten by a later generation of economists. Too many of life’s uncertainties are presented to us as if they are calculable risks, especially in the realm of finance. We should focus on the truly calculable risks, they argue, and stop pretending we can predict situations of radical uncertainty." -- Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford

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Book SynopsisHow did a lifesaving medical breakthrough become a for-profit enterprise that threatens the people it’s meant to save?

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Book SynopsisThis volume comprises the very essential elements of The Risk Management Handbook for Health Care Organizations, Fifth Edition , providing a complete and comprehensive overview of risk management in health care, including all the necessary foundations and applications to start a career or enhance current practice.Table of ContentsExhibits, Figures, Tables, and, Photos ix The Contributors xiii Preface xxvii About the Book xxix ONE Development of a Risk Management Program 1 Learning Objectives 1 Risk Management Program Development 3 Key Structural Elements of the Risk Management Program 4 Scope of the Risk Management Program 8 The Risk Management Process 13 Evolution of the Risk Management Program 21 Selecting an Appropriate Risk Management Program Structure 22 Assessing Areas of the Organization That Need Risk Management 23 Key Components for Getting Started 26 Writing a Risk Management Program Plan 27 Achieving Program Acceptance 27 TWO The Health Care Risk Management Professional 31 Learning Objectives 31 The Risk Manager’s Job: Functional Areas of Responsibility 33 Health Care Risk Management across a Spectrum of Settings 53 Required Skills for the Successful Health Care Risk Management Professional 76 Risk Management Ethics 77 A Profile of the Health Care Risk Management Professional 78 Education and Professional Recognition Programs 78 THREE Patient Safety and the Risk Management Professional 87 Learning Objectives 87 The Scope of Medical Errors 89 Seeking Solutions: What Are the Causes of Medical Errors? 91 FOUR Health Care Legal Concepts 115 Learning Objectives 115 Legal Issues Common to All Health Care Providers 116 Legal Issues Related to Specific Health Care Providers 134 FIVE Governance of the Health Care Organization 157 Learning Objectives 157 Essential Responsibilities of the Hospital Board 159 Basic Legal Duties of Health Care Trustees 160 Lessons from the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector 162 Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations 165 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 167 The Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 169 Risk Management and the Board 170 The Medical Staff, Risk Management, and the Board 175 SIX Early Warning Systems for the Identification of Organizational Risks 181 Learning Objectives 181 Early Identification of Exposure to Loss 182 Food and Drug Administration 206 Institute for Safe Medication Practices, United States Pharmacopeia, and National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention 208 Medical Event Reporting System—Transfusion Medicine 212 Intensive Care Unit Safety Reporting System 212 Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative 212 Other Voluntary Programs 212 Standardizing a Patient Safety Taxonomy: The National Quality Forum 213 Protecting Sensitive Information 213 SEVEN the Risk Management Professional and Medication Safety 219 Learning Objectives 219 Latent and Active Failures 220 Systems Thinking 221 Risk Management: A Prioritizing Approach 252 Eight Ethics in Patient Care 261 Learning Objectives 261 Ethical Principles and Moral Obligations 263 Research 263 Institutional Review Boards 266 Patient Self-Determination Act 275 “Do Not Resuscitate”: Withholding or Withdrawing Treatment 277 NINE Documentation and The Medical Record 287 Learning Objectives 287 Documentation 291 Record Retention 310 Release of Records 310 Ownership of Medical Records 311 Medical Record Audits 312 Documentation and Risk Management 313 Emerging Risk Exposures 320 The Risk Management Professional’s Role 321 TEN Statutes, Standards, and Regulations 327 Learning Objectives 327 Patient Care 328 Medicare Modernization Act 331 Medical Staff 332 Life Safety Code 350 Federal Health Insurance Laws and Regulations 354 Tort Reform 357 Policy and Procedure Manuals 359 Case Law 360 ELEVEN Basic Claims Administration 367 Learning Objectives 367 The Claims Environment 368 The Claims Process 369 The Risk Management Professional’s Responsibilities 371 Regulatory Reporting of Claims 378 TWELVE Introduction to Risk Financing 381 Learning Objectives 381 Risk Financing in the Context of the Risk Management Process 384 Risk Retention 384 THIRTEEN Insurance: Basic Principles and Coverages 395 Learning Objectives 395 Definition of Insurance 396 Specific Types of Insurance for the Health Care Industry 408 FOURTEEN Information Technologies and Risk Management 427 Learning Objectives 427 Risk Management Information Needs 430 Risk Management Information Systems 431 Using Information Systems to Generate Reports 432 Integrating Risk Management, Quality Assurance, and Patient Safety 433 Electronic Mail 434 Internet- and Web-Based Technology 435 Personal Health Record 435 Electronic Health Records and Systems 436 Clinical Information Systems and “Smart” Technologies 437 Infrastructure Technology 440 Point-of-Care Technology 442 Telemedicine 442 Appendix 14.1: IT Glossary for Risk Managers 447 FIFTEEN Risk Management Metrics 451 Learning Objectives 451 Benchmarking Defined 453 Claims 456 Measuring Change 459 Developing New Metrics 461 SIXTEEN Acreditation, Licensure, Certification, and Surveying Bodies 467 Learning Objectives 467 The Consumer Era of Health Care 468 What the Health Care Risk Management Professional Needs to Know 469 Mandatory Surveying Bodies 471 Voluntary Surveying Bodies 475 URAC 489 Appendix 16.1: Accreditation and Licensure Organizations, Surveying Bodies, and Government Agencies 501 SEVENTEEN Emergency Management 503 Learning Objectives 503 The Steps of Emergency Management 505 Prevention 506 Planning and Preparation 511 Implementation and Response 525 Recovery 526 Recommended Web Sites 528 EIGHTEEN Occupational Safety, Health, and Environmental Impairment 529 Learning Objectives 529 Administrative Procedure Act 530 Administrative Enforcement 532 Specific Occupational Safety and Health Issues 535 APPENDIX A A RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (EXAMPLE) 543 APPENDIX B REQUEST FOR RECORDS form (EXAMPLE) 549 APPENDIX C A GUIDE TO MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY 551 GLOSSARY 565 INDEX 623

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Book SynopsisThere are plenty of books on specialized risk topics but few that deal with the broad diversity and daily applicability of this subject. Risk applications require a robust knowledge of many attributes of this seemingly simple subject. This book teaches the reader through examples and case studies the fundamental (and subtle) aspects of risk - regardless of the specific situation. The text allows the reader to understand the concept of risk analysis while not getting too involved in the mathematics; in this method the reader can apply these techniques across a wide range of situations. The second edition includes new examples from NASA and several other industries as well as new case studies from legal databases. The many real-life discussion topics enable the reader to form an understanding of the concepts of risk and risk management and apply them to day-to-day issues.Table of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Risk: Life’s Question Mark 1 2. Measurement: The Alchemist’s Base 15 3. Statistics: Numbers Looking for an Argument 41 4. The Value of Life and Limb, Statistically Speaking 69 5. The Evolution of Risk 93 6. Frequency and Severity: Weighing the Risk 107 7. What’s in a Risk? Perception Creates Risk Reality 128 8. Risk, Regulation, and Reason 151 9. Earth, Air, and Water: The Not-So-Bare Essentials 176 10. Food . . . for Thought 210 11. Flying: The Not-So-Wild Blue Yonder 249 12. Risk on the Roads 278 13. An Incomplete List of Life’s Risks 315 Index 337

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a thorough analysis of internal rating systems. Two case studies are devoted to building and validating statistical-based models for borrowers' ratings, using SPSS-PASW and SAS statistical packages. Mainstream approaches to building and validating models for assigning counterpart ratings to small and medium enterprises are discussed, together with their implications on lending strategy. Key Features: Presents an accessible framework for bank managers, students and quantitative analysts, combining strategic issues, management needs, regulatory requirements and statistical bases. Discusses available methodologies to build, validate and use internal rate models. Demonstrates how to use statistical packages for building statistical-based credit rating systems. Evaluates sources of model risks and strategic risks when using statistical-based rating systems in lending. This book will prove to be of great value to banTable of ContentsPreface xi About the authors xiii 1 The emergence of credit ratings tools 1 2 Classifications and key concepts of credit risk 5 2.1 Classification 5 2.1.1 Default mode and value-based valuations 5 2.1.2 Default risk 6 2.1.3 Recovery risk 7 2.1.4 Exposure risk 8 2.2 Key concepts 8 2.2.1 Expected losses 8 2.2.2 Unexpected losses, VAR, and concentration risk 9 2.2.3 Risk adjusted pricing 13 3 Rating assignment methodologies 17 3.1 Introduction 17 3.2 Experts-based approaches 19 3.2.1 Structured experts-based systems 19 3.2.2 Agencies’ ratings 22 3.2.3 From borrower ratings to probabilities of default 26 3.2.4 Experts-based internal ratings used by banks 31 3.3 Statistical-based models 32 3.3.1 Statistical-based classification 32 3.3.2 Structural approaches 34 3.3.3 Reduced form approaches 38 3.3.4 Statistical methods: linear discriminant analysis 41 3.3.5 Statistical methods: logistic regression 54 3.3.6 From partial ratings modules to the integrated model 58 3.3.7 Unsupervised techniques for variance reduction and variables’ association 60 3.3.8 Cash flow simulations 73 3.3.9 A synthetic vision of quantitative-based statistical models 76 3.4 Heuristic and numerical approaches 77 3.4.1 Expert systems 78 3.4.2 Neural networks 81 3.4.3 Comparison of heuristic and numerical approaches 85 3.5 Involving qualitative information 86 4 Developing a statistical-based rating system 93 4.1 The process 93 4.2 Setting the model’s objectives and generating the dataset 96 4.2.1 Objectives and nature of data to be collected 96 4.2.2 The time frame of data 96 4.3 Case study: dataset and preliminary analysis 97 4.3.1 The dataset: an overview 97 4.3.2 Duplicate cases analysis 103 4.3.3 Missing values analysis 104 4.3.4 Missing value treatment 107 4.3.5 Other preliminary overviews 109 4.4 Defining an analysis sample 114 4.4.1 Rationale for splitting the dataset into an analysis sample and a validation sample 114 4.4.2 How to split the dataset into an analysis sample and a validation sample 114 4.5 Univariate and bivariate analyses 116 4.5.1 Indicators’ economic meanings, working hypotheses and structural monotonicity 117 4.5.2 Empirical assessment of working hypothesis 130 4.5.3 Normality and homogeneity of variance 137 4.5.4 Graphical analysis 140 4.5.5 Discriminant power 145 4.5.6 Empirical monotonicity 157 4.5.7 Correlations 160 4.5.8 Analysis of outliers 162 4.5.9 Transformation of indicators 164 4.5.10 Summary table of indicators and short listing 177 4.6 Estimating a model and assessing its discriminatory power 184 4.6.1 Steps and case study simplifications 184 4.6.2 Linear discriminant analysis 185 4.6.3 Logistic regression 210 4.6.4 Refining models 216 4.7 From scores to ratings and from ratings to probabilities of default 229 5 Validating rating models 237 5.1 Validation profiles 237 5.2 Roles of internal validation units 239 5.3 Qualitative and quantitative validation 241 5.3.1 Qualitative validation 242 5.3.2 Quantitative validation 249 6 Case study: Validating PanAlp Bank’s statistical-based rating system for financial institutions 257 6.1 Case study objectives and context 257 6.2 The ‘Development report’ for the validation unit 258 6.2.1 Shadow rating approach for financial institutions 258 6.2.2 Missing value analysis 259 6.2.3 Interpreting financial ratios for financial institutions and setting working hypotheses 260 6.2.4 Monotonicity 263 6.2.5 Analysis of means 263 6.2.6 Assessing normality of distributions: histograms and normal Q–Q plots 263 6.2.7 Box plots analysis 266 6.2.8 Normality tests 267 6.2.9 Homogeneity of variance tests 269 6.2.10 F-ratio and F-Test 270 6.2.11 ROC curves 270 6.2.12 Correlations 270 6.2.13 Outliers 270 6.2.14 Short listing and linear discriminant analysis 272 6.3 The ‘Validation report’ by the validation unit 274 7 Ratings usage opportunities and warnings 285 7.1 Internal ratings: critical to credit risk management 285 7.2 Internal ratings assignment trends 289 7.3 Statistical-based ratings and regulation: conflicting objectives? 291 7.4 Statistical-based ratings and customers: needs and fears 295 7.5 Limits of statistical-based ratings 298 7.6 Statistical-based ratings and the theory of financial intermediation 305 7.7 Statistical-based ratings usage: guidelines 310 Bibliography 315 Index 321

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Book SynopsisWhile the literature on reinsurance is vast, there is currently no comprehensive treatment of the major actuarial and financial aspects of the subject. Many publications deal with specific aspects of the theory without putting them into a proper perspective. Reinsurance: Actuarial and Statistical Aspects treats the topic differently.Table of ContentsPreface ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 What is Reinsurance? 1 1.2 Why Reinsurance? 2 1.3 Reinsurance Data 4 1.3.1 Case Study I: Motor Liability Data 5 1.3.2 Case Study II: Dutch Fire Insurance Data 10 1.3.3 Case Study III: Austrian Storm Claim Data 10 1.3.4 Case Study IV: European Flood Risk Data 11 1.3.5 Case Study V: Groningen Earthquakes 12 1.3.6 Case Study VI: Danish Fire Insurance Data 12 1.4 Notes and Bibliography 16 2 Reinsurance Forms and their Properties 19 2.1 Quota-share Reinsurance 19 2.1.1 Some Practical Considerations 20 2.2 Surplus Reinsurance 21 2.3 Excess-of-loss Reinsurance 24 2.3.1 Moment Calculations 25 2.3.2 Reinstatements 27 2.3.3 Further Practical Considerations 29 2.4 Stop-loss Reinsurance 30 2.5 Large Claim Reinsurance 31 2.6 Combinations of Reinsurance Forms and Global Protections 32 2.7 Facultative Contracts 33 2.8 Notes and Bibliography 33 3 Models for Claim Sizes 35 3.1 Tails of Distributions 35 3.2 Large Claims 36 3.3 Common Claim Size Distributions 40 3.3.1 Light-tailed Models 41 3.3.2 Heavy-tailed Models 44 3.4 Mean Excess Analysis 49 3.5 Full Models: Splicing 50 3.6 Multivariate Modelling of Large Claims 52 4 Statistics for Claim Sizes 59 4.1 Heavy or Light Tails: QQ- and Derivative Plots 60 4.2 Large Claims Modelling through Extreme Value Analysis EVA for Pareto-type Tails 63 4.2.1 EVA for Pareto-type Tails 63 4.2.2 General Tail Modelling using EVA 82 4.2.3 EVA under Upper-truncation 91 4.3 Global Fits: Splicing, Upper-truncation and Interval Censoring 97 4.3.1 Tail-mixed Erlang Splicing 97 4.3.2 Tail-mixed Erlang Splicing under Censoring and Upper-truncation 99 4.4 Incorporating Covariate Information 114 4.4.1 Pareto-type Modelling 114 4.4.2 Generalized Pareto Modelling 116 4.4.3 Regression Extremes with Censored Data 119 4.5 Multivariate Analysis of Claim Distributions 123 4.5.1 The Multivariate POT Approach 124 4.5.2 Multivariate Mixtures of Erlangs 125 4.6 Estimation of Other Tail Characteristics 128 4.7 Further Case Studies 132 4.8 Notes and Bibliography 137 5 Models for Claim Counts 139 5.1 General Treatment 139 5.1.1 Main Properties of the Claim Number Process 140 5.2 The Poisson Process and its Extensions 141 5.2.1 The Homogeneous Poisson Process 141 5.2.2 Inhomogeneous Poisson Processes 143 5.2.3 Mixed Poisson Processes 144 5.2.4 Doubly Stochastic Poisson Processes 149 5.3 Other Claim Number Processes 157 5.3.1 The Nearly Mixed Poisson Model 157 5.3.2 Infinitely Divisible Processes 158 5.3.3 The Renewal Model 160 5.3.4 Markov Models 161 5.4 Discrete Claim Counts 161 5.5 Statistics of Claim Counts 164 5.5.1 Modelling Yearly Claim Counts 164 5.5.2 Modelling the Claim Arrival Process 172 5.6 Claim Numbers under Reinsurance 183 5.6.1 Number of Claims under Excess-loss Reinsurance 183 5.7Notes and Bibliography 187 6 Total Claim Amount 189 6.1 General Formulas for Aggregating Independent Risks 189 6.2 Classical Approximations for the Total Claim Size 191 6.2.1 Approximations based on the First Few Moments 191 6.2.2 Asymptotic Approximations for Light-tailed Claims 193 6.2.3 Asymptotic Approximations for Heavy-tailed Claims 198 6.3 Panjer Recursion 199 6.4 Fast Fourier Transform 200 6.5 Total Claim Amount under Reinsurance 201 6.5.1 Proportional Reinsurance 201 6.5.2 Excess-loss Reinsurance 202 6.5.3 Stop-loss Reinsurance 204 6.6 Numerical Illustrations 206 6.7 Aggregation for Dependent Risks 208 6.8 Notes and Bibliography 212 7 Reinsurance Pricing 217 7.1 Classical Principles of Premium Calculation 219 7.2 Solvency Considerations 219 7.2.1 The Ruin Probability 223 7.2.2 One-year Time Horizon and Cost of Capital 226 7.3 Pricing Proportional Reinsurance 228 7.4 Pricing Non-proportional Reinsurance 229 7.4.1 Exposure Rating 229 7.4.2 Experience Rating 232 7.4.3 Aggregate Pure Premium 234 7.5 The Aggregate Risk Margin 235 7.6 Leading and Following Reinsurers 237 7.7 Notes and Bibliography 238 8 Choice of Reinsurance 241 8.1 Decision Criteria 243 8.2 Classical Optimality Results 245 8.2.1 Pareto-optimal Risk Sharing 245 8.2.2 Stochastic Ordering 247 8.2.3 Minimizing Retained Variance 248 8.2.4 Maximizing Expected Utility 251 8.2.5 Minimizing the Ruin Probability 253 8.2.6 Combining Reinsurance Treaties over Subportfolios 8.3 Solvency Constraints and Cost of Capital 259 8.4 Minimizing Other Risk Measures 261 8.5 Combining Reinsurance Treaties 262 8.6 Reinsurance Chains 263 8.7 Dynamic Reinsurance 264 8.8 Beyond Piecewise Linear Contracts 266 8.9 Notes and Bibliography 268 9 Simulation 273 9.1 The Monte Carlo Method 273 9.2 Variance Reduction Techniques 276 9.2.1 Conditional Monte Carlo 277 9.2.2 Importance Sampling 277 9.3 Quasi-Monte Carlo Techniques 283 9.4 Notes and Bibliography 288 10 Further Topics 291 10.1 More on Large Claim Reinsurance 291 10.1.1 The Ordered Claims 291 10.1.2 Large Claim Reinsurance 296 10.1.3 ECOMOR 298 10.2 Alternative Risk Transfer 300 10.2.1 Notes and Bibliography 304 10.3 Reinsurance and Finance 305 10.4 Catastrophic Risk 306 References 309 Index 347

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Book SynopsisComplete profiles of today's most successful annuities. Expert tips on how to maximize your returns. Variable annuities now outpace mutual funds as the number one choice among street-smart investors--and it's easy to see why.Table of ContentsALL ABOUT ANNUITIES. What Is a Variable Annuity?. How an Annuity Works. How to Invest in a Variable Annuity. Reading a Variable Annuity Prospectus. THE 100 BEST SUBACCOUNTS. How the 100 Best Subaccounts Were Determined. About the 100 Best Subaccounts. Aggressive Growth Subaccounts. Balanced Subaccounts. Corporate Bond Subaccounts. Global Stock Subaccounts. Government Bond Subaccounts. Growth Subaccounts. Growth and Income Subaccounts. High-Yield Bond Subaccounts. Metals Subaccounts. Specialty Subaccounts. Utility Stock Subaccounts. World Bond Subaccounts. Glossary of Annuity Terms. About the Author.

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Book SynopsisStochastic Processes for Insurance and Finance offers a thorough yet accessible reference for researchers and practitioners of insurance mathematics. Building on recent and rapid developments in applied probability, the authors describe in general terms models based on Markov processes, martingales and various types of point processes. Discussing frequently asked insurance questions, the authors present a coherent overview of the subject and specifically address: The principal concepts from insurance and finance Practical examples with real life data Numerical and algorithmic procedures essential for modern insurance practices Assuming competence in probability calculus, this book will provide a fairly rigorous treatment of insurance risk theory recommended for researchers and students interested in applied probability as well as practitioners of actuarial sciences. Wiley Series in Probability and StatisticsTrade Review"...an excellent text..." -- Australian & New Zealand Journal of StatisticsTable of ContentsTable of Contents: Concepts from Insurance and Finance. Probability Distributions. Premiums and Ordering of Risks. Distributions of Aggregate Claim Amount. Risk Processes. Renewal Processes and Random Walks. Markov Chains. Continuous-Time Markov Models. Martingale Techniques I. Martingale Techniques II. Piecewise Deterministic Markov Processes. Point Processes. Diffusion Models. Distribution Tables. References. Index.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Timely — and, frankly, sometimes shocking. . . . Ultimate Price exposes a system rife with troubling assumptions and inequality that reduces each human to a data point. Well-written and readable, the book avoids being overly academic while still presenting a meticulously researched argument of why we all should take the time to understand how our own lives are priced.” * BuzzFeed *“Price tags on human lives are everywhere.” -- Kai Ryssdal, * Marketplace *“Should be required reading for anyone sitting down to watch the evening news." * New Books Network *"To ration resources and seek to re-open businesses, accountants have to assign price tags to life. . . . In Ultimate Price, a detailed analysis of how government organisations and corporations define the monetary value of human life, Howard Friedman tours the uncomfortable architecture of this calculus." * The Spectator *"Friedman argues that we must devise more equitable ways to assign value to human life. . . . Readers are exhorted to understand how lives are priced so that they might demand better formulas." * Science *“Provides a concise review of some of the scientific literature on valuing life including some of the moral issues one must consider when making these judgments. . . . Certainly worth a read for those looking to learn more on this interesting topic.” * Healthcare Economist *"Very clear and well-informed. It has loads of thought-provoking examples."
 * Enlightened Economist *“Looks deeply into the structurally problematic factors that impact the price tags Americans are given for our lives.”
 * Hacking Finance *“A reflection and criticism of the data cult of contemporary technological bureaucracy.” * First Financial Network *“In meticulous detail, Friedman shows that not all lives are valued equally, that social and economic inequalities are often reproduced and compounded in how we calculate the value of any one life . . . . Friedman draws a vivid picture of how uneven power, competing interests, and social and economic inequality influence how we value life.” * Literary Review of Canada *“Thank you, Howard Steven Friedman, for providing invaluable information, insights, and counsel that will help those who read your book to have a wider and deeper impact on efforts NOT to value all people equally; rather, to value all people fairly ​'​so that human rights and human lives are always protected.​'" ​ * BobMorris: Blogging on Business *"Friedman’s tour through the value of life is an excellent work for those willing to dip their toes into these regulatory waters without drowning in the scholarship." * Regulation *“He has succeeded admirably in his aim of providing a non-technical and comprehensive presentation of the salient issues that will prove useful to concerned citizens and policy analysts in the health sector alike.” * Economic Record *“Incredibly engaging reading. It deals with an extremely sensitive topic, but is written delicately, with sensitivity, with respect for human life.” * Dziennik Gazeta Prawna * "Friedman, who is an American statistician and health economist, argues compellingly that the way in which governments place a monetary value on human life is 'neither transparent nor fair'." * Economic Affairs *"Provides a comprehensive introduction to the prices put on human life and a corresponding critical assessment of the methods routinely used to do so. It forces us to reflect not only on how critical price tags are in everyday life but also on what they convey about society’s values."
 * Health Affairs *"A clear and useful introduction." * European Legacy *"The author has a great thesis and is true throughout the book calling for equity in fairness in human valuation." * Social Science Journal *"[Friedman] has succeeded admirably in his aim of providing a non-technical and comprehensive presentation of the salient issues that will prove useful to concerned citizens and policy analysts in the health sector alike." * Economic Record *"This is an important book." * Journal of Economics *"Social science researchers would find this book a worthwhile read for broadening their perspective on the many ways society values lives." * Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law *Table of Contents1. Your Money or Your Life? 2. When the Towers Fell 3. Justice Is Not Blind 4. A Little More Arsenic in Your Water 5. Maximizing Profits at Whose Expense? 6. I Want to Die the Way Grandpa Did 7. To Be Young Again 8. Can We Afford a Little One? 9. Broken Calculators 10. What’s Next? Notes Further Reading Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisHow much is a human life worth? Individuals, families, companies, and governments routinely place a price on human life. The calculations that underlie these price tags are often buried in technical language, yet they influence our economy, laws, behaviors, policies, health, and safety. These price tags are often unfair, infused as they are with gender, racial, national, and cultural biases that often result in valuing the lives of the young more than the old, the rich more than the poor, whites more than blacks, Americans more than foreigners, and relatives more than strangers. This is critical since undervalued lives are left less-protected and more exposed to risk. Howard Steven Friedman explains in simple terms how economists and data scientists at corporations, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies develop and use these price tags and points a spotlight at their logical flaws and limitations. He then forcefully argues against the rampant unfairness in the system. ReadersTrade Review“Timely — and, frankly, sometimes shocking. . . . Ultimate Price exposes a system rife with troubling assumptions and inequality that reduces each human to a data point. Well-written and readable, the book avoids being overly academic while still presenting a meticulously researched argument of why we all should take the time to understand how our own lives are priced.” * BuzzFeed *“Price tags on human lives are everywhere.” -- Kai Ryssdal, * Marketplace *“Should be required reading for anyone sitting down to watch the evening news." * New Books Network *"To ration resources and seek to re-open businesses, accountants have to assign price tags to life. . . . In Ultimate Price, a detailed analysis of how government organisations and corporations define the monetary value of human life, Howard Friedman tours the uncomfortable architecture of this calculus." * The Spectator *"Friedman argues that we must devise more equitable ways to assign value to human life. . . . Readers are exhorted to understand how lives are priced so that they might demand better formulas." * Science *“Provides a concise review of some of the scientific literature on valuing life including some of the moral issues one must consider when making these judgments. . . . Certainly worth a read for those looking to learn more on this interesting topic.” * Healthcare Economist *"It is a serious understatement to say that this is a thought-provoking volume. . . . [Friedman] calls our attention to the problems we ought not ignore." * Public Health Ethics *Table of Contents1. Your Money or Your Life? 2. When the Towers Fell 3. Justice Is Not Blind 4. A Little More Arsenic in Your Water 5. Maximizing Profits at Whose Expense? 6. I Want to Die the Way Grandpa Did 7. To Be Young Again 8. Can We Afford a Little One? 9. Broken Calculators 10. What’s Next? Notes Further Reading Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisStudents and practitioners needing a guide to life insurance accounting and product development will welcome this book. Developments in life insurance mathematics are described, together with more traditional methods, with various chapters addressing specific aspects of market-based valuation.Trade Review'... a very thorough treatment of the mathematical instruments that are developed.' H. van Wijk'The book under review is the first available reference to offer a comprehensive account for market-valuation methods in life and pension insurance, answering the insurance industry's demand in the wake of the European Union Solvency II project. … The book is well written, well organized and a very rich source of useful information for practitioners of the actuarial profession and financial asset managers who seek a practical yet sound guide to life and pension insurance accounting and product development. … researchers in the fields of actuarial sciences and financial economics may find it informative and inspiring to further research in the field of asset and liability modeling.' Scandinavian Actuarial JournalTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction and life insurance practice; 2. Technical reserves and market value; 3. Interest rate theory in insurance; 4. Bonus, binomial and Black-Scholes; 5. Integrated actuarial and financial valuation; 6. Surplus-linked life insurance; 7. Interest rate derivatives in insurance; Appendix A.

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