Disaster Insurance Reimagined: Protection in a Time of Increasing Risk
Abstract
Title
Disaster Insurance Reimagined: Protection in a Time of Increasing Risk
Authors: Paula Jarzabkowski, Konstantinos Chalkias, Eugenia Cacciatori, Rebecca Bednarek. Oxford University Press. 2023.
Abstract
The world is increasingly ravaged by disasters such as floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, and pandemics that cause inevitable losses. Beyond the toll on human lives, homes and livelihoods are destroyed. Having funds available after a disaster to finance reconstruction is crucial, preventing the escalation of human misery through poverty and displacement. Insurance is an important source of these funds. Yet, as disasters increase, the insurance system is in crisis. This presentation is based on our forthcoming book on ‘Protection Gap Entities’ (PGEs), which are not-for-profit insurance mechanisms that attempt to address the crisis in disaster insurance. They do so by rebalancing the tensions (paradoxes) at the heart of insurance: who controls the insurance market (the private sector or government); how much is known about the risk (too little or too much); and who should pay (individuals or society). Drawing on 5 years research into 17 of these PGEs operating in 49 countries, we explain the dynamics through which PGEs establish, restore, or maintain insurance in the face of increasing disaster. The e-copy of this book is open access, thanks to a European Commission Grant, and may be downloaded here.
About Paula
Paula Jarzabkowski is Professor of Strategic Management at University of Queensland and City, University of London. Paula’s research focuses on the practice of strategy and markets in complex, pluralistic, and paradoxical contexts. She publishes this research in leading journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Strategic Management Journal. In addition to the book she will present, she is author and editor of several books including, Strategy as Practice: An Activity-Based Approach (Sage), Making a Market for Acts of God (Oxford University Press), and the Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox. In addition, Paula is interested in impactful research that can inform policy and practice, as evidenced by her role as a member of the OECD High-Level Advisory Board for the Financial Management of Catastrophic Risk.
1:1 sessions
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