Research - 19.03.2025 - 09:29
“Thanks to insurance, people can take calculated risks – in traffic, at work, in trade and in many other areas. If there were no SUVA, for example, many people would slip into poverty after an accident at work,” says Christian Biener, HSG professor of Behavioural Research and Risk Management. He is co-director of the Institute of Insurance Economics (IVW-HSG). With seven professorships, it is currently the largest research unit for insurance economics in Europe.
This size allows the IVW to work on a wide range of topics: its researchers are investigating the amount of damage that cyberattacks can cause and whether they can be insured at all. The IVW team also conducts research into the consequences of climate change for insurers, such as the costs of damage caused by natural disasters such as cyclones, floods or forest fires. Alexander Braun, HSG professor of Insurance and Capital Markets, conducts research in this area. He emphasises: “Due to climate change, atmospheric natural disasters will become more frequent and more destructive in the future. This will push us to the limits of insurability, meaning that alternative risk transfer solutions, particularly those involving the capital markets, will become increasingly important.” IVW is one of the few research institutions worldwide with expertise in the field of alternative capital and insurance-linked securities. Alexander Braun passes on his research findings in this area directly to HSG students in the course Insurance-Linked Securities.
But the risk behaviour of customers, the design of insurance products and social security, digitisation or the sustainability of insurance companies are also in the IVW's focus. “Insurance science can provide insights into almost all socially relevant topics. That's what makes this discipline so exciting,” says Martin Eling, HSG Professor of Insurance Economics and co-director of IVW.
In 2024, the IVW celebrated its 75th anniversary. With its seven professorships and around 30 employees, it is one of the largest and most traditional of the 36 HSG institutes. The institutes enable the practical training, research and executive education that distinguish HSG from other universities. They also contribute significantly to the fact that HSG is approximately 50 per cent self-financing.
IVW is in close contact with over 40 major insurance companies in the DACH region, for example through the Future Value network, which was founded in 2003. The network meets three times a year for so-called FutureTalks, where IVW researchers and company representatives present research results and developments in the insurance sector to each other.
“This academic exchange also provides us with ideas for our research. We do a lot of basic research, but always with the aim of creating relevance for practice,” says Christian Biener. Among other things, he is currently conducting research in a project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation on how people in Switzerland decide on the design of their health insurance – for example, which deductible they choose. “Around half of the population pays hundreds of francs too much for their health insurance every year because of less than ideal decisions,” says Biener.
Martin Eling has been conducting intensive research at IVW for years into whether cyber risks, such as attacks on companies or critical infrastructure, are insurable. “New risks are constantly emerging in the digital space. Since all companies and institutions now work with digital systems, society is very vulnerable here.” Nevertheless, only seven out of 100 companies are insured against cyber risks. In their research, he and doctoral students also use models to simulate possible attacks and the financial damage they could cause.
Martin Eling's chair at IVW was established in 2011 and is funded for ten years by the Fördergesellschaft des IVW. This society includes CEOs of large insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as the SIA and SUVA. “The sponsors are a broad group of companies that value us as critical sparring partners,” says Eling. With reports, articles, pieces from the sponsoring company, income from executive education and degree courses, and studies with partners from the realm of working life, IVW finances itself almost 90 per cent with third-party funds.
This high level of self-financing has enabled IVW, among other things, to establish four new professorships in 2022. “This new size provides us with power in research,” says Hato Schmeiser, Co-Director of IVW and HSG Professor of Insurance Economics. In a worldwide ranking by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln based on publications in scientific journals, the IVW took first place for the years 2015 to 2024.
“Our vision is to be a world-leading institute in the field of risk management and insurance in teaching (undergraduate and executive education) and basic research,” says Hato Schmeiser. In teaching, the IVW has been able to anchor insurance topics more firmly in the HSG curriculum: for example, the number of students in risk management and insurance in 2024 has increased by a factor of 30 to around 700 compared to 2005.
In addition to the core events in the area of risk management and insurance, IVW also supports teaching at HSG in the areas of finance and data literacy. “Our expertise in the areas of quantitative modelling, risk pricing and financial markets also enables us to offer courses in company valuation and data analytics,” says Alexander Braun.
In addition to teaching at the university, executive education is of great importance: in 2024, around 150 teaching days with about 300 executives from 15 countries took place at the IVW. “In executive education, too, there is a lively academic exchange with practice, which is very fruitful for the IVW,” says Martin Eling.
