The Insurance Law Center cordially invites you to its fall 2013 symposium, THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF INSURANCE, in the William F. Starr Hall, University of Connecticut School of Law, Hartford, Connecticut on Friday, October 4, 2013 from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Insurance law and insurance economics each have long and distinguished scholarly histories, but participants in the two disciplines have not always communicated well across academic silos. As a result, legal analysis of insurance tends to ignore or simplify the economic implications of doctrinal rules and regulatory approaches. For example, the use of behavioral economics to understand anomalies in insurance demand has generated important insights that legal scholars and regulators are only beginning to assimilate. Meanwhile, economic models of insurance are often too divorced from legal realities and institutional details to offer clear policy guidance. Thus, careful study of different companies’ homeowners insurance policies reveal significant differences among them that present challenges for economic models of competition in insurance markets. In conjunction with the forthcoming publication of Edward Elgar’s Research Handbook on the Law and Economics of Insurance (Daniel Schwarcz and Peter Siegelman, eds.), this symposium aims to encourage more policy-relevant insurance economics scholarship and more economically-sophisticated legal scholarship by promoting conversation across legal and economic disciplines. To this end, the conference brings together leading scholars in insurance law and in insurance economics to discuss issues at the heart of both disciplines. Examples include the role of government in regulating insurance solvency and providing disaster insurance, the role of courts in interpreting insurance policies and regulating their content, and the role of insurance in shaping legal liability. Our hope is that the conference will better equip participants across disciplinary categories to integrate the new insights of insurance economics with the flourishing body of research in insurance law, so that each discipline can recognize and build on the contributions of the other.
8:15 Continental Breakfast
8:45 Welcome To The Law School
9:00 Why And How Do Consumers Purchase Insurance?
Howard C. Kunreuther, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania & Mark V. Pauly, The Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania: Behavioral Economics & Insurance:Policy, Legislative, and Regulatory Principles and Solutions
Daniel Schwarcz, University of Minnesota Law School & Peter Siegelman, University of Connecticut School of Law:The Law & Economics of
Insurance Intermediaries
Joshua C. Teitelbaum, Georgetown University Law Center: Optimal Design of Insurance Policies
Moderator: Patricia A. McCoy, University of Connecticut School of Law
10:15 Break
10:30 The Role Of The State In Insurance Markets
Kenneth S. Abraham, University of Virginia School of Law & Pierre-Andr Chiappori, Department of Economics, Columbia
University: Classification Risk and Its Regulation
Scott E. Harrington, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: U.S. Health Insurance and Health Care Reform
James Kwak, University of Connecticut School of Law: Social Insurance as Insurance
Moderator: John Aloysius Cogan, Jr., University of Connecticut School of Law
11:45 Luncheon
Luncheon Keynote Address
Hon. Thomas B. Leonardi, Insurance Commissioner, State of Connecticut
1:30 Insurance Regulation
Martin Grace, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University: Economics of State vs. Federal Regulation
Robert W. Klein, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University & Elizabeth F. Brown, J. Mack Robinson College of Business,
Georgia State University: Insurance Solvency Regulation: Present Structure and Future Promise
Moderator: Peter Kochenburger, University of Connecticut School of Law
2:20 Break
2:35 Courts And Insurance
Tom Baker, University of Pennsylvania Law School & Kyle D. Logue, The University of Michigan Law School:Mandatory and Non-Mandatory
Implied-in-Law Terms in Insurance Contracts
Michelle Boardman, George Mason University School of Law: Interpretation and Construction of Insurance Contracts
Richard Squire, Fordham University School of Law: Duty to Settle
Moderator: Daniel Schwarcz, University of Minnesota Law School
3:45 Conference Conclusion
Continental breakfast and lunch provided to those who register by Monday September 30, 2013. Registration is free. To register, call Patricia
Carbray at 860-570-5184 or write patricia.carbray@uconn.edu. Out-of-town guests may book rooms at the Hartford Downtown Marriott.