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Main Authors: Cheung, Ka Chun, Yam, Sheung Chi Phillip, Yuen, Fei Lung, Zhang, Yiying
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17468
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author Cheung, Ka Chun
Yam, Sheung Chi Phillip
Yuen, Fei Lung
Zhang, Yiying
author_facet Cheung, Ka Chun
Yam, Sheung Chi Phillip
Yuen, Fei Lung
Zhang, Yiying
contents In this article, we employ a principal-agent model to analyze optimal contract design in a monopolistic reinsurance market under adverse selection with a continuum of insurer types. Instead of using the classical expected utility framework, we model each insurer's risk preference through their VaR at their chosen risk tolerance level. Under informational asymmetry, the reinsurer (principal) seeks to maximize expected profit by offering an optimal menu of reinsurance contracts to a continuum of insurers (agents) with hidden characteristics. To avoid the complexity of the traditional duality approach, which yields indirect multivariate utility functions, we introduce a change of variables that reduces the problem to a univariate one. We show that the optimal indirect utility for both stop-loss and quota-share reinsurance is in stop-loss form, implying that the reinsurer will classify agents into two risk groups-high and low-even in the continuum setting. Utilizing this new class of indirect utility functions, we fully solve the problem for three common reinsurance structures: stop-loss, quota-share, and change-loss. Numerical examples are also provided for illustrating the main findings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_17468
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal design of reinsurance contracts with a continuum of risk assessments
Cheung, Ka Chun
Yam, Sheung Chi Phillip
Yuen, Fei Lung
Zhang, Yiying
Risk Management
In this article, we employ a principal-agent model to analyze optimal contract design in a monopolistic reinsurance market under adverse selection with a continuum of insurer types. Instead of using the classical expected utility framework, we model each insurer's risk preference through their VaR at their chosen risk tolerance level. Under informational asymmetry, the reinsurer (principal) seeks to maximize expected profit by offering an optimal menu of reinsurance contracts to a continuum of insurers (agents) with hidden characteristics. To avoid the complexity of the traditional duality approach, which yields indirect multivariate utility functions, we introduce a change of variables that reduces the problem to a univariate one. We show that the optimal indirect utility for both stop-loss and quota-share reinsurance is in stop-loss form, implying that the reinsurer will classify agents into two risk groups-high and low-even in the continuum setting. Utilizing this new class of indirect utility functions, we fully solve the problem for three common reinsurance structures: stop-loss, quota-share, and change-loss. Numerical examples are also provided for illustrating the main findings.
title Optimal design of reinsurance contracts with a continuum of risk assessments
topic Risk Management
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17468