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Public natural catastrophe reinsurance: What other countries do

Brookings | 2026-03-19 | economy

Topics: Indo-Pacific, United States

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English Summary

A new Brookings/Hamilton Project paper by Adam Solomon examines how foreign governments use public reinsurance to address natural catastrophe insurance market failures, drawing lessons for a proposed U.S. federal reinsurance entity. Analyzing programs in Australia, the U.K., France, Spain, Japan, and elsewhere, Solomon finds that the most durable systems combine risk-based pricing, mandatory broad participation to prevent adverse selection, defined hazard coverage, and credible funding backstops such as industry levies and government guarantees. The paper concludes that well-designed public reinsurance can stabilize strained insurance markets by concentrating government capital on correlated tail risks while preserving private-sector underwriting and mitigation incentives—offering a viable policy path as U.S. property insurance becomes increasingly unaffordable or unavailable due to extreme weather.

中文摘要

布魯金斯學會/漢密爾頓計畫由 Adam Solomon 撰寫的新論文,探討各國政府如何運用公共再保險機制應對天然災害保險市場失靈,並為美國擬議設立的聯邦再保險機構汲取經驗。論文分析澳洲、英國、法國、西班牙、日本等國的制度後發現,最具持續性的體系皆結合風險定價、強制廣泛參與以防止逆選擇、明確的災害承保範圍,以及可靠的資金後盾(如行業徵費與政府擔保)。研究結論指出,設計完善的公共再保險能夠將政府資本集中於相關性尾部風險,同時維持民間承保與減災誘因,從而穩定承壓的保險市場——在極端天氣導致美國財產保險日益昂貴或難以取得之際,提供一條可行的政策路徑。

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