Over the past two decades, the United States has successfully deregulated prices and moved entry barriers in most previously regulated industries, including airlines, trucking, railroads, telecommunications, and banking. Only a few industries remain regulated, one of the largest being the property-liability insurance business. In light of recent sweeping legislation to modernize other sectors of the insurance industry, this timely volume examines the basis for continued regulation of rates and forms of the U.S. property-liability insurance market.

The book focuses on private passenger automobile insurance?the most important personal line of property-liability coverage, with annual premiums of about $120 billion. The contributors present five state case studies: California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey?three of the most heavily regulated states?as well as Illinois, which has been deregulated for about 30 years, and South Carolina, which began to deregulate in 1997. The book also includes an econometric analysis based on all 50 states over a 25-year period that gauges the impact of regulation on insurance price levels, price volatility, and the proportion of automobiles insured in residual markets. In addition, it includes an analysis of the welfare effects of commercial lines contract regulation and an overview chapter relating developments in insurance markets to the economic theory of regulation.

 Full text (418 pages)

 Table of Contents
 

Property-Liability Insurance Price Deregulation: The Last Bastion?; J. David Cummins
 

Automobile Insurance Regulation: The Massachusetts Experience; Sharon Tennyson, Mary A. Weiss, and Laureen Regan
 

on Chapters 2 and 3; Richard A. Derrig
 

Auto Insurance Reform: Salvation in South Carolina; Martin F. Grace, Robert W. Klein, and Richard D. Phillips
 

on Chapter 5; David Appel
 

Insurance Price Deregulation: The Illinois Experience; Stephen P. D?Arcy
 Chapter 7: Effects of Prior Approval Rate Regulation of Auto Insurance; Scott E. Harrington
          

on Chapter 7; Georges Dionne
 

Form Regulation in Commercial Insurance; Richard J. Butler
 

Insurance Regulation in Other Industrial Countries; Georges Dionne
 Index

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