The role of insurance in reducing direct risk: the case of flood insurance

Swenja Surminski

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The provision of flood insurance is a patchwork, with countries showing varying degrees of penetration, coverage types, demand levels, and design structures. This article explores the current understanding of flood insurance with a specific focus on the ability of flood insurance to contribute to direct risk reduction. The starting point is a consideration of the existing provision of flood insurance, both in established insurance markets and in developing countries. A review of efforts to analyse and explain the use and design of flood insurance highlights how the understanding of supply and demand determinants is steadily growing, while clear gaps also emerge. Particularly the question of utilizing flood insurance in the context of climate change and as a lever for physical risk reduction would benefit from further empirical and theoretical analysis. The article concludes with a reflection on current efforts to reform and design flood insurance and offers some pointers for future research.

Keywords: Flood insurance; Disaster risk reduction; Flood risk management; Insurance; Climate change; Natural hazards; Adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-12-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-rmg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published in International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 18, December, 2014, 7(3-4), pp. 241-278. ISSN: 1932-1473

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/60764/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:60764

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().