La maggiore disponibilità di informazioni rappresenta una leva per la competitività delle compagnie di assicurazione che, con lavvento del digitale, si possono avvalere di modalità che utilizzano strumenti decisamente più potenti ed efficaci, ma che rischiano di non essere completamente percepiti dai clienti e, dunque, potenzialmente invasivi. In questo contributo ci si propone di analizzare i problemi di funzionamento del mercato assicurativo con una particolare attenzione alle asimmetrie informative, concentrandosi sulle novità che derivano dai Big data e considerando ladeguatezza del quadro normativo e regolamentare. Nella prima parte viene approfondito il tema delle asimmetrie informative che caratterizzano tradizionalmente il mercato assicurativo, adverse selection, moral hazard e il conseguente fenomeno delle frodi. Si passa poi a trattare dei rimedi, quali lo strumento della classificazione dei rischi e delle sue conseguenze potenzialmente negative in termini di « discriminazione ». La parte successiva tratta delle novità in termini di concorrenzialità dovute allutilizzo dei Big data e, in particolare, leffetto sulla pratica dello scambio di informazioni. Alcune considerazioni finali riguardano i futuri scenari in tema di regolamentazione e intervento antitrust.

Purpose – Class action (CA) has long been used in practice (mainly in the USA) and studied by academics especially in the shareholder protection area. This paper aims to apply the same practice within the current financial meltdown context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper faces the issue by comparing ex ante regulation with an ex post regulatory system, basically dependent on the action of the consumer who can sue firms that behave unfairly. The arguments are provided by the law and economics (LE) approach. Findings – According to LE, pure economic loss is a private loss that is not socially relevant but simply implies a redistribution of wealth. Consequently, wrongful behavior that induces reallocation of costs and benefits with no consequences on social welfare is not considered socially harmful, so is not necessarily subject to compensation. Since pure economic loss is very often financial, the above reasoning also applies to financial markets. However, the same LE arguments suggest that in financial markets, the policy of internalizing pure economic loss by means of CAs can be more far-sighted than simply compensating the victims: the liability system has the particular feature of producing deterrence and driving the market towards an efficient outcome. Originality/value – The paper maintains that CA intended as a complementary ex post regulatory device can play a significant role in addressing a failure that ex ante regulation has not in financial markets. This is coherent with the LE tradition that interprets tort law remedies as a solution for internalizing externalities and providing the correct incentive to the markets.

The law and economics analysis of the climate change remedies has been focused on the ques- tion of which would be the policy instrument most suited to provide incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The literature focuses mainly on the comparison of carbon taxes and emission trading scheme. But a rele- vant role can be played by financial and insur- ance instruments, especially considering the adaptation and mitigation strategies. Finally, another instrument is considered, largely used to internalize other environmental externalities but still not so much analysed for climate change, the liability system.

This paper deals with the role of the legal liability framework in fostering the financial internalisation of environmental damages. Two different instruments will be considered. The next paragraph reviews the US and EC corporate environmental liability systems. Then a second instrument, namely financial responsibility, which precisely respond to the need of internalising damages by forcing the firm to identify ex ante the financial resources to be allocated for damage compensation, will be analysed and its advantages from an economic point of view will be stressed. Finally, some remarks will be on the role of the financial and insurance instruments in the future to face the problem of the effects of climate change.

The choice between environmental policies is traditionally considered in terms of ex ante versus ex post interventions on the behavior of (potential) injurers that (can) cause an envi- ronmental accident with a consequent environ- mental damage. Moreover, market-based policies can be implemented as an indirect form of incentive for correct behavior. The two market-based policies, taxes and tradable permits system, are compared on the basis of the difference between price and quantity instruments. And finally, the real situation of the presence of an environmental policy mix is considered as a research challenging topic.

This article pays hommage to the important work of Göran Skogh, the founding father of the European Association of Law and Economics. It recalls Skogh’s work on instrument choice, the transaction cost of insurance and his important contributions to environmental policy. Attention is especially focused on Skogh’s contribution to the topic of risk-sharing institutions. The article sketches how Skogh identified the conditions for effective risk-sharing and indicates that risk-sharing can also provide interesting solutions for various (natural) catastrophes.

Despite their growing intensity and the enormous costs, adverse meteorological events are still perceived as “exceptional”. Among the adverse weather events, the management of drought risk plays a key role due to the more pressing problem of the scarcity of water resources. In this context, agricultural insurance can represent a financial and risk mitigation tool for farmers. In this perspective, the aims of this study are: (1) to analyze, through a systematic review, the main findings of the scientific literature focused on the empirical and theoretical approach to the relation between adverse weather events in agriculture, risk and insurance; (2) to collect agroclimatic and insurance data for each Italian province for the period 2004-2011, (3) to measure the influence of climatic agroclimatic variables on insurance variables, i.e. Total Premiums, Insured Value and Certificates. The results of the analysis show the significance of the precipitation variable and its negative effect with each insurance dependent variable. The same result can be observed focusing on the effect of minimum temperature on two insurance variables, i.e. Total Premiums and Certificates. Models tested explain a range between 44% and 51% of the variation in our insurance dependent variables.

Using a Law and Economics approach, the paper analyses the recent environmental accident caused by BP oil spill. The focus is on the issue of recovering catastrophic damage through liability as an ex post regulation instrument. Moreover different kinds of regulation, such as ex ante and self regulation, are examined also in relation with the European environmental policy system.

This comprehensive volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of regulatory economics and reviews the main theories, tools, and domains of regulation. The book is divided into six parts: regulation in general; tools of regulation; social regulation; regulation of public utilities; regulation of non-natural-monopolies, and regulation of professions. Regulation and Economics begins with a valuable introductory chapter on the law and economics of regulation followed by 17 concise chapters on specific subjects in regulation including highly topical matters such as regulation of banking, finance and insurance; energy markets and telecommunications; and environmental and risk regulation. Providing an overview of the most important insights in regulatory economics and providing a useful access point to the more specialized literature in this area, this unique book will particularly benefit students of law and economics, as well as academics and government officials of regulatory agencies.

Insurance market is characterized by failures that impose particular negative consequences; given the failures, different remedies may improve the market outcome. On one hand, the insurance market is characterized by asym- metric information, i.e. moral hazard and adverse selection, and to correct the conse- quent severe market failures, monitoring and risk classification can be implemented. On the other hand, the insolvency issue: given the enormous amounts of funds in the hands of insurance companies, their default would have an extreme impact, and regulation is nec- essary to guarantee the payback for policyholders and beneficiaries.

The paper outlines the role of insurance as an economic policy tool that can be used to address the issue of climate change. The magnitude of potential loss, the adverse social and economic consequences for millions of people and considerable fiscal strain imposed on government budgets by extreme weather events all indicate that governments can benefit significantly from the use of an insurance instrument capable not only of covering damage but also of providing an incentive for risk reduction behaviours. By examining the diverse insurance systems that exist in European countries and grouping them into five stylised models, natural hazards insurance is examined in terms of private and public involvement. The paper analyses the performance of different insurance models in relation to information imperfections (i.e. adverse selection and moral hazard) and market imperfections (i.e. charity hazard and transaction costs). In addition, the different models are examined in terms of the extent to which they incentivise mechanisms that facilitate the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to the inevitable impacts of climate change and the development of climate risk finance management. Some concluding remarks are offered regarding the possible future development of a European insurance model as a means of developing an economically effective response to natural hazards caused by climate change.

Every time a natural disaster happens, in Italy we discover that the country is exposed to catastrophic risks (earthquake, subsidence, land slides, storms, floods, etc.), and that they can generate enormous damage. In the recent case of Aquila city and the area around, earthquake caused losses for about 2-3 billions of euros but only 300 millions covered by insurance groups due to the low penetration of earthquake insurance policies. The drama derived from the single event calls for the attention of the whole society for the negative consequences and the economic and environmental damages size. But a more general knowledge of the risk exposure should stimulate the implementation of an insurance system, not only to provide financial resources covering the losses, but also to boost preventive measures for risks reduction. This paper presents an analysis of the reasons of the insurance system lack of implementation and of features of a national public/private system covering natural disasters consequences.

I mutamenti sociali in atto hanno fortemente posto in risalto, negli ultimi anni, le necessità circa un maggiore equilibrio vita-lavoro. L’esigenza in esame, sentita in primo luogo, ovviamente, dai lavoratori, ha progressivamente investito organizzazioni e istituzioni. Il telelavoro ha rappresentato e rappresenta un approccio di soluzione possibile. Il Progetto “Telelab. Laboratorio di telelavoro e conciliazione”, realizzato fra il 2011 e il 2014 presso l’Università del Salento, grazie ad un finanziamento dalla Regione Puglia (nell’ambito dell’Avviso del 2009 sui c.d. Patti sociali di genere) ha avuto per obiettivo, attraverso l’attivazione di un certo numero di postazioni di telelavoro per dipendenti dell’Amministrazione, il favorire le politiche di conciliazione fra aspetti personali e familiari e profili lavorativi dei soggetti coinvolti. Il progetto è stato curato e seguito in ogni sua fase da una “cabina di regia” di professoresse e funzionarie dell’Università di Lecce.

Cultural heritage, such as historical cities, monuments, and archaeological sites, represents our identity, contributes to people’s wellbeing and local economy development, and helps to build more resilient communities. However, effects of natural as well as human-induced disasters threaten historical heritage, and they had caused the irrecoverable loss of many properties over the centuries. The issue is topical especially because the number as well as the magnitude of disasters predictably will increase in the future also due to the effects of climate change. Therefore, it is more necessary than ever to schedule timely and tailored strategies dealing with the effects and consequences of future disasters on cultural heritage paying attention to possible strategies to assure future conservation. In this direction, the article, starting from a brief overview about disaster consequences on cultural heritage, lingers on the role that insurance can play as ex ante and ex post tool in setting up policies dealing with catastrophe risk and cultural heritage. The conclusion considers some future research perspectives.

Il libro di testo "Politiche economiche, dei mercati e dell'ambiente" è stato concepito per fornire un'analisi degli strumenti della politica economica con riferimento al dibattito in atto circa la loro applicazione. In particolare, il metodo seguito in questo testo è quello della presentazione dei diversi argomenti con una trattazione essenziale ma rigorosa degli elementi di base della teoria economica, per fornire agli studenti i principi teorici con cui interpretare l'applicazione concreta degli strumenti della politica economica.

Il libro di testo “Politiche economiche, dei mercati e dell’ambiente” è stato concepito per fornire un’analisi degli strumenti della politica economica con riferimento al dibattito in atto circa la loro applicazione. In particolare, il metodo seguito in questo testo è quello della presentazione dei diversi argomenti con una trattazione essenziale ma rigorosa degli elementi di base della teoria economica, per fornire agli studenti i principi teorici con cui interpretare l’applicazione concreta degli strumenti della politica economica.

The article analyzes the regulatory framework in the insurance market in connection with the advent of Big Data, such as information collected from different sources that can be manipulated by new technologies. The use of Big Data offers significant opportunities to the insurance companies in terms of digitization of the distribution channels and greater knowledge of the customers, which is instrumental to a more effective identification of the individual’s risk profile, as well as improvement of the competitiveness. However, regulatory measures are needed for a proper use of Big Data in terms of respect of the individual privacy, potential discrimination and constraint on competition.

The contribution aims to identify different instruments of regulation implemented in the insurance market to correct market imperfections. In principle, imperfections impose particulr costs on one or both market sides. Introducing a regulation does not automatically do away with these costs or alleviate the underlying friction. But, given the imperfections, regulatory interventions may improve the market outcome.

Given that the insurance market is characterized by asymmetric information, its efficiency has traditionally been based to a large extent on risk classification. In certain regulations, however, we can find restrictions on these differentiations, primarily the ban on those considered to be “discriminatory”. In 2011, following the European Union Directive 2004/113/EC, the European Court of Justice concluded that any gender-based discrimination was prohibited, meaning that gender equality in the European Union had to be ensured from 21 December 2012. Another restriction was imposed by EU and national competition regulation on the exchange of information considered as anti-competitive behavior. This paper aims to contribute to the recent policy debate in the EU, evaluating the negative economic consequences of these regulatory restrictions in terms of market efficiency.

In the Italian insurance market, the use of technologies facilitating online transactions is increasing together with the diffusion of the so-called comparison web sites. The European Insurance and Pension Supervision Authority (EIOPA) published in January 2014 the Report on Good Practices on Comparison Websites to promote the adoption of behaviors that ensure the correctness of the comparison and the transparency of the information made available to the public. In the same year, the Italian Authority for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS) issued a survey on the comparison websites, and the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) initiated two procedures to ascertain any incorrect commercial practices of two sites operating on national territory. In all these regulatory interventions, there is a great deal of attention to the protection of custom- ers who make purchasing choices based on the comparison that sites propose. But, on the other hand, the issue of market competition and the risk of using digital platforms as a means of the transmission and the implementation of anti-competitive behaviors appear in the background. With the aim of deepening this issue, the paper analyzes the digitization process and the distribution changes in the Italian insurance market, the role of comparison websites and the interventions of European and national authori- ties, the positive impact of comparison websites on the market competitiveness and the negative one as a consequence of collusive practices.

The idea of sustainable development emerged both from science and the environmental movement in the 70s and 80s of last century. Since then a lot was done in the field, sometimes without even naming it “sustainable development”, but a lot still remains to be done. In this paper we start from the consideration that sustainable development requires that we see our world as a system that connects space and any discussion today must first consider the enormous impacts that modern globalization trends are playing in shaping the economic geography of places, such as macro-regions. In the future, macro-regional development could be the most important platform for enhancing sustainability. The regional dimension is suitable for redefining the meaning of sustainable social, economic and environmental systems in a way which is practical and very close to the people and to the operative public decisions (Alkan Olsson et al. 2004). This paper is divided in different sections: the first is about the regional sustainable development concept and place-based approach; the second is about Local Agenda 21; the third about regional integration and developmental regionalism; the fourth is about regional sustainable development in practise and the European macro-regions; at the end some conclusive remarks concerns the macro-regional future strategies addressing sustainable development.

In the past few years, unstable and extreme weather patterns are increasingly occurring as phenomena of climate change and the link to greenhouse gas emissions is scientifically accepted. Extreme weather patterns cause major dam- age on health, property and business. Thus, the question is who is going to pay. In this paper, following a law and eco- nomics approach, the problem is analysed starting from the consideration that emitters of greenhouse gases externalize the true costs of their contribution to climate change. Efforts to recover these costs, which manifest both through the costs of impacts and the costs of efforts to prevent impacts, could imply a relevant role for the insurance sector. Be- cause the insurance sector is the world’s largest industry, the response of insurers to the broader climate-change chal- lenge will no doubt be extremely relevant to solve this internalization problem. Particularly the paper is about the role that insurance sector could play in the design of political economic solutions for climate change consequences. This role can be identified in different directions: (1) insurance coverage for claims of third-parties who allege injury or property damage; (2) insurance financial products to finance technological responses to climate change, such as mitiga- tion and adaptation. Specifically the indirect effect of the insurers is discussed in proactively stimulating climate change prevention behavior related to their customers in the view of the choice of political economic instruments.

In the past few years, unstable and extreme weather patterns are increasingly occurring as phenomena of climate change, and the link to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is scientifically accepted. From an economic point of view, extreme weather patterns are causing major damage to health, property, and business.In this chapter, following an economic analysis of law (EAL) approach, the issue of the comparison between the alternative environmental economic policies is analyzed starting from the consideration that the emissions of GHGs originate market failures: the environment appears as a “public good” that may not be appropriated and has no market price; the damage to the environment is a case of “externality,” where it is fully or partly a social cost that is not internalized into the accounts of the parties causing it. In the EAL literature, an environmental policy instrument has been seen as it may play a role in correcting malfunction and subsequent inefficiencies.In the first part of the chapter, we intend to revise the traditional analysis of the choice of environmental policies. The following part deals with the comparison between tax and tradable permit systems. Then the role that can be played by the insurance sector is considered. The different policy instruments are considered in the framework of climate as an economic global public good. And, finally, some conclusive remarks are presented in relation to the COP 21 conference in Paris in terms of the future policies against GHG effects.

We focus in this paper on the effects of court errors on the optimal sharing of liability between firms and financiers, as an environmental policy instrument. Using a structural model of the interactions between firms, financial institutions, governments and courts we show, through numerical simulations, the distortions in liability sharing between firms and financiers that the imperfect implementation of government policies implies. We consider in particular the role played by the efficiency of the courts in jointly avoiding Type I (finding an innocent firm guilty of inappropriate are) and Type II (finding a guilty firm not guilty of inappropriate care) errors. This role is considered in a context where liability sharing is already distorted (when compared with first best values) due not only to the courts’ own imperfect assessment of safety care levels exerted by firms but also to the presence of moral hazard and adverse selection in financial contracting. There is also not ongruence of objectives between firms and financiers on the one hand and social welfare maximization on the other. Our results ndicate that an increase in the efficiency of court system in avoiding errors raises safety care level, thereby reducing the probability of accident, and allowing the social welfare maximizing government to impose a lower liability [higher] share for firms [financiers] as well as a lower standard level of care.

Climate change is likely to cause extreme weather events in the world with the consequence of an increased number of natural catastrophes. The expected damages pose serious challenges to governments in terms of policy choice and a crucial point is to define the role can be played by insurance sector, particularly as a tool to reduce potential damage, as well as to stimulate mitigation. Scientific research and good knowledge of risk are necessary in guiding policy decisions to manage the risks deriving from climate change. In this direction, the author analyses the fact that risks connected with climate change and the potential contribution of the insurance sector need to be analysed by scientific research in order to plan the correct risk management strategies in the future.

Among the main European countries, Italy continues to be the one with the highest frequency of accidents and the highest average cost of damages. Moreover, there is a relationship between premiums and compensation costs: insurance premiums follow the trend of accident frequency and the average cost of claims. Therefore, this paper analyses the dynamics of the Italian insurance market in terms of premiums, claims and fraud. It then considers recent public interventions in relation to their efficiency in dealing with the problem of the excessively high level of premiums. Finally, an explanation is found for the weakness of competition and the distributional structure of Italian insurance companies.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of foreign banks in the restructuring process that has characterized the Albanian banking system in transition from the planned economy to the market economy. The backward state in which the Albanian economy was left after the fall of the communist regime made necessary a plan of reforms of the legal and financial system. The new plan of rules in the subject of regulation and banking supervision fostered the opening of new banks and new branches which increased both the demand and the supply of credits to the private sector. On the assets and deposits side, at the present, the banking system of Albania is highly characterized by the presence of foreign banks. Assuming that, on the one hand, an easier access to credit allows small enterprises to develop and contribute to the economic growth of a country and, on the other hand, that only an efficient banking system lays the basis for an easier access to credit, in this paper we will concentrate mainly on the Albanian banking system with special attention to the role of foreign banks.

1. Premessa. 2. « Nulla cambia »: il continuo aumento dei premi r.c.-auto nel confronto intertemporale ed internazionale. 3. « Tutto cambia »: i numerosi interventi di carattere legislativo e regolamentare. 4. E per quanto riguarda il livello di concorrenza tra le diverse compagnie? 5. Considerazioni su possibili soluzioni...

In 1992 the European Commission adopted an exempting regulation for the insurance market that was replaced in 2010 by the so called Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (IBER) that will expire on 31 March 2017. The exemption regards the application of competition rules to certain types of agreements in the insurance sector, joint compilations, tables and studies which involve the exchange of information between insurers; and also the common coverage of risk via co-(re)insurance pools. On 17 March, the European Commission released a report focusing on the future of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation in which it is recommended to not renew IBER. This recommendation comes from the consideration that consumers were not receiving a fair share of the resulting benefits from the cooperation exempted by IBER and that is a Commission’s long-term strategy to eliminate industry-specific exemptions from competition law. This paper aims to investigate, under a law and economics approach, if other factors can be relevant in deciding to not provide any more exemptions for the insurance companies. After an introduction, in the following part, the economics effects of the exchange of information are analysed in terms of asymmetric information remedy and competition restrictions; then the story of the block exemption is presented and the next paragraph deals with the change in the insurance market after the end of the exemption; finally, some conclusive remarks are drawn in the light of the Big Data era.