Mutual Insurance 1550-2015

By: Marco H. D. Van Leeuwen

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Synopsis: In the modernWestern world, we tend to be insured by the state or for-profit insurers. Wehave privileged this system over mutual or micro-insurance, whose long and richhistory we tend to forget. Yet, mutual and micro-insurance is becomingincreasingly important, both in the Western and in the non-Western world andbears re-examination. This book tracesthe track record of mutual insurance from 1550 to the present, examiningprovisions for burial, sickness, unemployment, old age, and widowhood. Theauthor seeks to address such topics as the type of risks micro-insurancecovered between 1550 and 2015; how it was organized throughout its history; whoprovided the coverage; and how contributions, benefit levels, and conditionshave changed. Importantly, theauthor explores why this system has worked through, and endured, the test oftime. Mutual insurance can, for instance, overcome classic insurance problemssuch as adverse selection and moral hazards. The author demonstrates that thestudy of the position micro-insurance historically assumed in mixed economiesof welfare presents interesting lessons for today's insurance market, as wellas for today's mutualism.