Risk Management in Deadly Times: The U.S. Life Insurance Industry in the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Gertjan Verdickt, University of Auckland; Gustavo Cortes

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Life insurance balance sheet.xlsx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet 2.5 MB 09/17/2024 03:53:PM
Table_2.do text/plain 2.7 KB 09/17/2024 03:55:PM

Project Citation: 

Verdickt, Gertjan, and Cortes, Gustavo. Risk Management in Deadly Times: The U.S. Life Insurance Industry in the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-09-17. https://doi.org/10.3886/E209168V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary Using a novel, hand-collected dataset of U.S. life insurance companies during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–19, we show that high-exposure life insurers charged higher prices on new policies vis-à-vis less exposed firms. Although the disease surprisingly increased the mortality rates among younger adults, it also increased awareness of the importance of life insurance. We argue that price increases were a crucial risk management tool. Coupled with a surge in demand and coverage, it prevented further financial distress. While devastating for public health, the Influenza Pandemic was not too severe for the life insurance industry.



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V1 [2024-09-17]

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