Risk pool
Encyclopedia
A risk pool is one of the forms of risk management mostly practiced by insurance
companies. Under this system, insurance
companies come together to form a pool, which can provide protection to insurance companies against catastrophic risks such as floods, earthquakes etc. The term is also used to describe the pooling of similar risks that underlies the concept of insurance. While risk pooling is necessary for insurance to work, not all risks can be effectively pooled. In particular, it is difficult to pool dissimilar risks in a voluntary insurance market, unless there is a subsidy available to encourage participation.
Risk pooling is an important concept in supply chain management
. Risk pooling suggests that demand variability is reduced if one aggregates demand across locations because as demand is aggregated across different locations, it becomes more likely that high demand from one customer will be offset by low demand from another. This reduction in variability allows a decrease in safety stock
and therefore reduces average inventory
.
For example: in the centralized distribution system
, the warehouse
serves all customers, which leads to a reduction in variability measured by either the standard deviation
or the coefficient of variation
.
The three critical points to risk pooling are:
Intergovernmental risk pools may include, but are not limited to, authorities, joint power authorities, associations
, agencies
, trusts
, and other risk pools.
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
companies. Under this system, insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
companies come together to form a pool, which can provide protection to insurance companies against catastrophic risks such as floods, earthquakes etc. The term is also used to describe the pooling of similar risks that underlies the concept of insurance. While risk pooling is necessary for insurance to work, not all risks can be effectively pooled. In particular, it is difficult to pool dissimilar risks in a voluntary insurance market, unless there is a subsidy available to encourage participation.
Risk pooling is an important concept in supply chain management
Supply chain management
Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers...
. Risk pooling suggests that demand variability is reduced if one aggregates demand across locations because as demand is aggregated across different locations, it becomes more likely that high demand from one customer will be offset by low demand from another. This reduction in variability allows a decrease in safety stock
Safety stock
Safety stock is a term used by logisticians to describe a level of extra stock that is maintained to mitigate risk of stockouts due to uncertainties in supply and demand. Adequate safety stock levels permit business operations to proceed according to their plans...
and therefore reduces average inventory
Inventory
Inventory means a list compiled for some formal purpose, such as the details of an estate going to probate, or the contents of a house let furnished. This remains the prime meaning in British English...
.
For example: in the centralized distribution system
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...
, the warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
serves all customers, which leads to a reduction in variability measured by either the standard deviation
Standard deviation
Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
or the coefficient of variation
Coefficient of variation
In probability theory and statistics, the coefficient of variation is a normalized measure of dispersion of a probability distribution. It is also known as unitized risk or the variation coefficient. The absolute value of the CV is sometimes known as relative standard deviation , which is...
.
The three critical points to risk pooling are:
- Centralized inventory saves safety stock and average inventory in the system.
- When demands from markets are negatively correlated, the higher the coefficient of variation, the greater the benefit obtained from centralized systems; that is, the greater the benefit from risk pooling.
- The benefits from risk pooling depend directly on the relative market behavior. This is explained as follows: If we compare two markets and when demand from both markets are more or less than the average demand, we say that the demands from the market are positively correlated. Thus the benefits derived from risk pooling decreases as the correlation between demands from the two markets becomes more positive.
In government
Intergovernmental risk pools (IRPs) operate under the same general principle, except that they are made up of public entities, such as government agencies. Thus, IRPs provide alternative risk financing and transfer mechanisms to their members, through which particular types of risk are underwritten with contributions (premiums), with losses and expenses shared in agreed ratios. In other words, Intergovernmental Risk Pools are a cooperative group of governmental entities joining together to finance an exposure, liability or risk.Intergovernmental risk pools may include, but are not limited to, authorities, joint power authorities, associations
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
, agencies
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
, trusts
Trust company
A trust company is a corporation, especially a commercial bank, organized to perform the fiduciary of trusts and agencies. It is normally owned by one of three types of structures: an independent partnership, a bank, or a law firm, each of which specializes in being a trustee of various kinds of...
, and other risk pools.
See also
- U.S. health insurance risk pools
- List of disasters by cost