SFS Cavalcade North America 2026
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia
May 18-21, 2026
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 18th Apr 2026, 05:19:24am EDT
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Agenda Overview |
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Track T2-1: Real Assets, Insurance, and Real Estate
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The Economics of Insurance Guaranty Funds 1Harvard Business School; 2Wharton; 3ASU; 4Columbia Business School Growing climate risk is straining P\&C insurers' financial stability. State-level guaranty funds are designed to protect consumers facing insolvent insurers, yet their structure and effectiveness remain understudied. Unlike the pre-funded and centralized FDIC, these guaranty funds are state-run and rely on ex-post, risk-insensitive assessments of surviving insurers. While guaranty funds are intended to increase trust in the insurance system, in practice payouts can take years to reach homeowners, leaving them with unrepaired homes as they wait for claims to be paid. Crucially, we find that their structure significantly distorts insurance supply: solvent insurers exit states following insolvencies to avoid these ``tax" assessments and to escape inheriting concentrated exposures in affected counties. Furthermore, the post-funding mechanism degrades supply quality: fragile insurers, ignoring their own insolvency costs, underprice better-capitalized rivals for fully covered policies. Other explanations of exit, such as general industry-wide declines or climate risk management do not explain these exit and pricing patterns, though they can amplify the effects of the guaranty fund. These findings highlight how the current guaranty fund design induces moral hazard and amplifies pro-cyclical supply disruptions.
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