New York Times: "Why California and Florida Have Become Almost Uninsurable"
RFF Fellow Penny Liao is quoted in this column about recent decisions by homeowner insurance companies to curtain business in Florida and California.
Allowing private insurance companies to charge more would keep the market functioning, but it’s politically challenging. “People just don’t like to buy disaster insurance,” Yanjun Liao, an economist and fellow at the think tank Resources for the Future, told me. “That is a fact that is documented across the world.” Governments want insurance to be both affordable and available, but when it’s more affordable it’s less available and vice versa. “That tension is very hard to resolve,” Liao said.
