Reinsurance allows insurance companies to diversify their risks. However, from this original role, insurance companies have developed various reinsurance strategies in order to expand their market share. From the last decades of the nineteenth century to the 1940s, Spanish insurance companies used reinsurance in a largely unregulated context. This article analyses the reinsurance practices and their adaptation to the singularities of the Spanish market, namely: the difficulties for the consolidation of a core of pure reinsurers; the management of reinsurance in the internationalisation process; and the use of reinsurance by mutual societies to overcome their lack of equity capital.
The backwardness of actuarial techniques in Spain and the lack of Spanish mortality tables had a bearing on the development of life insurance in Spain. The actuaries of the domestic and foreign companies operating in this country used other countries’ mortality tables, corrected upwards, to draw up their policies. With actuarial reports from the Gresham Life Assurance Society, established in Spain in the 1890s, the difficulties actuaries had to confront to adjust expectations to Spanish reality can be followed for decades. On the basis of statistical information from 1896 to 1937, a comparison is made between expected and actual death rates. Furthermore, the information from this company enables a comparison with other countries in which it operated (more developed and less developed than Spain) and with the profit and loss results of other domestic and foreign companies operating in the country. Moreover, the problems caused for actuaries by unforeseen events that affected the Spanish population in particular, such as the “Spanish Influenza” or the Civil War, can also be studied. On the basis of this valuable documentation, certain patterns of the difficulties faced by actuaries operating in economically backward countries before World War II can be established.
Reinsurance is a vital financial device for enhancing underwriting capacity, ceding risks, and mitigating financial distress. By supplying financial resources and services, reinsurance can facilitate growth and expansion in the insurance business. Focusing on the insurance sector in the emerging Spanish economy and using a novel dataset on fire insurance companies, this article examines the role of fire insurance in the national capital formation, the importance of reinsurance as a vehicle for expanding the country's domestic underwriting capacity, and how the import of capital impacted on the balance of payment, from the introduction of the first comprehensive legislation regarding insurance in 1908 to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936. Considering the situation of undercapitalization, the singularities of the insurance market, and the changes in regulatory schemes, we find that foreign reinsurance became a key financial vehicle for increasing underwriting capacity in Spain. We also show the struggle of an emerging market to find ways to keep the balance of current accounts and raise capital when financial infrastructure was underdeveloped. The diffusion of reinsurance networks from the core of industrial western countries towards emerging economies was one of the mechanisms for financial modernization on a global scale.
El propósito de este artículo es presentar, al tiempo que evaluar, la experiencia que durante el curso 2011-2012 se desarrolló por parte de los profesores del Área de Historia e Instituciones Económicas con el uso de guías de lectura en el marco de las clases prácticas en la Facultad de Ciencias del Trabajo de la Universidad de Sevilla. Se perseguía desarrollar una estrategia didáctico-metodológica donde el alumno sea un elemento activo en el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje, procurando dar los primeros pasos en su "alfabetización académica". Las valoraciones de los estudiantes, al final del cuatrimestre, nos animan a perseverar en el uso de estas guías. Palabras clave: Didáctica; Relaciones Laborales; Alfabetización Académica; Clases Prácticas. abstract: This article focuses on an experience developed during the academic year "reaDiNg is tHe Key to KNowleDge". las lecturas guiaDas como iNstrumeNto De aPreNDizaJe eN las asigNaturas De Historia ecoNómica eN la FacultaD De cieNcias Del trabaJo 18 / vv.aa. "reaDiNg is tHe Key to KNowleDge" TRABAJO 27 • U. Huelva 2012 I.S.S.N. 1136-3819 17-41an strategy in order to promote the active role of the student in the teaching-learning process. The reading-guides are considered as the first step in an "academic literacy" process. The assessments of students, at the end of the semester, encourage us to persevere in the use of these guides.
This paper examines the changes to reinsurance regulation implemented during the Spanish autarky to analyze how the restriction of imports of financial services affects the performance of the insurance and risk management industry. We build a novel dataset on domestic insurers and reinsurers to identify the effects of the barriers to purchasing foreign reinsurance on corporate strategies and ultimately, on the determinants of reinsurance demand. We find that, in spite of a chronic dependence on foreign risk exchange networks, Spanish insurers faced this period of isolation by means of an intensive use of captive reinsurance. This strategy helped to alleviate financial distress and resulted in the substitution of foreign reinsurers by domestic companies, as far as the restrictive regulation was in force.
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