Pooling in Insurance

Abstract In this article, we explore how pooling of economic risks is dealt with in insurance and reinsurance. Consider an average individual. Instead of facing risks in isolation, the individual may sort out a larger group of people with similar risks, and together work out a scheme how to share these. This should be done so that everyone comes out better than, or at least as good as, standing alone. In the article, I try to explain, by several examples, how pooling works in insurance. Pension insurance is our first example, where we point out how how pooling takes place along several different dimensions. A major concept is the mutuality principle , which we relate to both pension insurance and the theory of syndicates. We present some examples outside the field of insurance, with the same basic features, that of pooling individual risks. The last aspect of pooling that we discuss is best explained in the framework of information economics. This we do in a section about adverse selection.