Publications

November 1995 (Revised November 1996)
Background Note

Global Property and Casualty Insurance Industry, The

This case gives a broad overview of the global property and casualty insurance industry. Topics covered include insurance economics and risk bearing, insurance accounting, risk-based capital, catastrophic risk, underwriting cycles, the Lloyd's crisis, reinsurance, and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Insurance; Insurance Industry

January 2021
Case

Value-Based Insurance Design at Onex

By: Joshua Schwartzstein, Amitabh Chandra and Amram Migdal

The operating executives of Health and Benefits for Onex Partners, Megan Jackson Frye and Sam Camens, faced a challenge: Healthcare costs for employees of Onex’s portfolio companies were continuing to rise above the consumer price index, reflecting broader trends... View Details

Awards

Swiss Finance Institute, Outstanding Paper

By: Robin Greenwood

Winner of the 2019 Swiss Finance Institute Outstanding Paper Award for "The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves" with Annette Vissing-Jorgensen. View Details

August 2013 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Aon Hewitt's Private Health Insurance Exchange

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Aiden Y. Feng and Meghan D. Oliver

Aon Hewitt, a leading health insurance broker and consultant, is one of the first movers in forming exchanges to sell health insurance. What kinds of products should it offer on this exchange? View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Insurance

Article

Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance

By: Katherine Baicker, Sendhil Mullainathan and Joshua Schwartzstein

A fundamental implication of standard moral hazard models is overuse of low-value medical care because copays are lower than costs. In these models, the demand curve alone can be used to make welfare statements, a fact relied on by much empirical work. There is ample... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance Industry

June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Nephila: Innovation in Catastrophe Risk Insurance

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Michael Heinrich

At the cross-section of capital markets and the catastrophe insurance space stands the hedge fund Nephila. Nephila must decide how best to take advantage of the newly presented market opportunities post hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. Nephila has a plethora of... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Investment Management; Uncertainty; Risk and Uncertainty; Natural Disasters; Insurance; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry; Bermuda

August 6, 2007
Article

Insuring China's Future

By: Robert C. Pozen

Keywords: Insurance; China

Find at Harvard

February 2020 (Revised June 2020)
Case

From Cradle to Heaven: Taikang Insurance Group

By: William C. Kirby, Shu Lin, John P. McHugh and Yuanzhuo Wang

Taikang Insurance Group was a leading Chinese insurance and financial services institution. It operated in the insurance, asset management, and health and senior care industries. Due to China’s underdeveloped social welfare state, Taikang saw an opportunity for the... View Details

Keywords: Health; Insurance; Strategy; Insurance Industry; China

May 2022 (Revised June 2024)
Case

LOOP: Driving Change in Auto Insurance Pricing

By: Elie Ofek and Alicia Dadlani

John Henry and Carey Anne Nadeau, co-founders and co-CEOs of LOOP, an insurtech startup based in Austin, Texas, were on a mission to modernize the archaic $250 billion automobile insurance market. They sought to create equitably priced insurance by eliminating pricing... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry

May 2019 (Revised May 2020)
Case

fidentiaX: The Tradable Insurance Marketplace on Blockchain

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen and Jiahua Xu

Three years ago, Alvin Ang and his partner founded fidentiaX in Singapore, with the ambition to create the world’s first marketplace for tradable insurance policies on blockchain. With a 26-page white paper, the start-up closed a successful fundraising round through an... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Insurance; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry; Singapore

September 2013
Case

Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Homestrings is an online investment platform for overseas diasporas to link financially with their home countries. The founder believes crowd-funding can become a pillar for development, but U.S. regulatory hurdles and resources constraints are substantial. The company... View Details

Keywords: Diasporas; Investments; Regulations; Africa; Crowd-funding; Development Finance; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Financial Services Industry; Africa; United States

July 2012
Case

Transatlantic Holdings, Inc. - The Belle of the Ball

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

In November of 2011 Transatlantic Holdings, Inc., a global property and casualty reinsurance company, announced it had agreed to sell itself to Alleghany Corporation, ending "the most frenzied takeover battle" of 2011, which involved competitors, Warren Buffett's... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Finance; Insurance And Reinsurance; Governance; Insurance; Mergers and Acquisitions; Strategy; Valuation; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry; United States; Bermuda; Switzerland

April 2011 (Revised November 2012)
Exercise

Reinsurance Negotiation: Confidential Information for JLT Insurance Company

By: Robert C. Pozen and Henoch Senbetta

The Reinsurance Negotiation case is a fictional three-party negotiation between a primary insurer and two reinsurers. The case is appropriate for use in a wide variety of courses, including Financial Institutions, Negotiations, and courses related to the Insurance and... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Insurance

August 2001 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Consumer-Driven Health Care: Medtronic's Health Insurance Options

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, John Hurwitch and Seth Bokser

Describes the variety of health insurance plans that this medical device company offers, including a high-deductible, consumer-driven health plan with a health reimbursement account that also enables health care providers to quote their own prices. Asks students to... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Compensation and Benefits; Demand and Consumers

17 Mar 2025
News

Compare Car Insurance Rates

20 Apr 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Making Health Insurance That Consumers Actually Like

Keywords: Re: Regina E. Herzlinger; Insurance; Insurance

2024
Working Paper

When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets

By: Ishita Sen, Pari Sastry and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

This paper studies how homeowners insurance markets respond to growing climate losses and how this impacts mortgage market dynamics. Using Florida as a case study, we show that traditional insurers are exiting high risk areas, and new lower quality insurers are... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Natural Disasters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; Florida

SSRN

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January 2012
Case

Taikang Insurance: Standing Out In China's Crowded Insurance Market

By: William C. Kirby and Tracy Yuen Manty

As a joint-stock insurance company in China, with both state-owned enterprises and foreign firms as investors, Taikang Insurance was becoming a force in the industry. It not only competed with well-entrenched state-owned rivals, but it was also seen as an... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Industry Structures; Insurance Industry; China