Publisher's Synopsis
An efficient insurance market is essential to the smooth running of every modern economy, benefiting individuals, firms and society at large. Insurance, through the wider spreading of the financial costs of uncertain losses, increases the security of policy-holders and others, reduces the cost of risks and improves the international competitive position of firms. Also the funds accumulated by insurance companies make them major investors in the world's capital markets. Consequently, throughout this century, many governments have actively pursued policies aimed at building up strong domestic insurance industries.;Since the 1950s, technological progress and population growth have increased the size of many insurable risks beyond the capacity of national insurance industries, so that there has been a growing need to spread risks beyond national frontiers. Yet for various reasons many governments, particularly among the developing countries, have restricted trade with international insurers and reinsurers.;Carter and Dickinson examine the case for the reversal of that trend by governments now embarking in liberalizing international trade in insurance and reinsurance. They consider recent trends in trade in insurance services, the restrictions affecting trade between countries and attempts through the European Community and GATT to liberalize that trade.
