The existence of moments of first downward passage times of a spectrally negative Lévy process is governed by the general dynamics of the Lévy process, i.e. whether it is drifting to $+\infty$ , $-\infty$ , or oscillating. Whenever the Lévy process drifts to $+\infty$ , we prove that the $\kappa$ th moment of the first passage time (conditioned to be finite) exists if and only if the $(\kappa+1)$ th moment of the Lévy jump measure exists. This generalizes a result shown earlier by Delbaen for Cramér–Lundberg risk processes. Whenever the Lévy process drifts to $-\infty$ , we prove that all moments of the first passage time exist, while for an oscillating Lévy process we derive conditions for non-existence of the moments, and in particular we show that no integer moments exist.

We consider a risk model with a counting process whose intensity is a Markovian shot-noise process, to resolve one of the disadvantages of the Cramér–Lundberg model, namely the constant intensity of the Poisson process. Due to this structure, we can apply the theory of piecewise deterministic Markov processes on a multivariate process containing the intensity and the reserve process, which allows us to identify a family of martingales. Eventually, we use change of measure techniques to derive an upper bound for the ruin probability in this model. Exploiting a recurrent structure of the shot-noise process, even the asymptotic behaviour of the ruin probability can be determined.

We propose a new approach to mortality prediction under survival energy hypothesis (SEH). We assume that a human is born with initial energy, which changes stochastically in time and the human dies when the energy vanishes. Then, the time of death is represented by the first hitting time of the survival energy (SE) process to zero. This study assumes that SE follows a time-inhomogeneous diffusion process and defines the mortality function, which is the first hitting time distribution function of the SE process. Although SEH is a fictitious construct, we illustrate that this assumption has the potential to yield a good parametric family of cumulative probability of death, and the parametric family yields surprisingly good predictions for future mortality rates.

We consider a risk model with threshold strategy, where the insurance company pays off a certain percentage of the income as dividend whenever the current surplus is larger than a given threshold. We investigate the ruin time, ruin probability, and the total dividend, using methods and results from queueing theory.

In this paper we use a case study of a non-life insurance portfolio to demonstrate how recent research in ruin theory can be applied to solvency problems. By approximating the aggregate claims distribution for the portfolio by a translated gamma distribution, we estimate ruin probabilities through a recursive procedure when the insurer earns investment income on its surplus. We also show the results of applying simulation techniques to this problem, and discuss some advantages and disadvantages of simulation as a means of assessing ruin probabilities. Finally we discuss the calculation of the probability of ruin at the end of a specified time period.

In this paper, we consider the dual of the classical Cramér-Lundberg model when gains follow a phase-type distribution. By using the property of phase-type distribution, two pairs of upcrossing and downcrossing barrier probabilities are derived. Explicit formulas for the expected total discounted dividends until ruin and the Laplace transform of the time of ruin under a variety of dividend strategies can then be obtained without the use of Laplace transforms.

For general risk processes, we introduce and study the expected time-integrated negative part of the process on a fixed time interval. Differentiation theorems are stated and proved. They make it possible to derive the expected value of this risk measure, and to link it with the average total time below 0, studied by Dos Reis, and the probability of ruin. We carry out differentiation of other functionals of one-dimensional and multidimensional risk processes with respect to the initial reserve level. Applications to ruin theory, and to the determination of the optimal allocation of the global initial reserve that minimizes one of these risk measures, illustrate the variety of fields of application and the benefits deriving from an efficient and effective use of such tools.

In this paper we use Fourier/Laplace transforms to evaluate numerically relevant probabilities in ruin theory as an application to insurance. The transform of a function is split in two: the real and the imaginary parts. We use an inversion formula based on the real part only, to get the original function.

By using an appropriate algorithm to compute integrals and making use of the properties of these transforms we are able to compute numerically important quantities either in classical or non-classical ruin theory. As far as the classical model is concerned the problems considered have been widely studied. In what concerns the non-classical model, in particular models based on more general renewal risk processes, there is still a long way to go. In either case the approach presented is an easy method giving good approximations for reasonable values of the initial surplus.

To show this we compute numerically ruin probabilities in the classical model and in a renewal risk process in which claim inter-arrival times have an Erlang(2) distribution and compare to exact figures where available. We also consider the computation of the probability and severity of ruin in the classical model.

When the premium rate is a positive absolute constant throughout the time period of observation and the safety loading of the insurance business is positive, a classical result of collective risk theory claims that probabilities of ultimate ruin ψ(u) and of ruin within finite time ψ(t,u) decrease as eϰu with a constant ϰ>0, as the initial risk reserve u increases. This paper establishes uniform approximations to ψ(t,u) with slower rates of decrease when the premium rate depends on u in such a way that the safety loading decreases to zero as u→∞.

We consider a risk process with stochastic interest rate, and show that the probability of eventual ruin and the Laplace transform of the time of ruin can be found by solving certain boundary value problems involving integro-differential equations. These equations are then solved for a number of special cases. We also show that a sequence of such processes converges weakly towards a diffusion process, and analyze the above-mentioned ruin quantities for the limit process in some detail.

Suppose Xi≧0 are i.i.d., i = 1, 2, ···. We derive a saddlepoint approximation for P{∑N(t)k=1Xk> y} as y→∞ and t is fixed, where N(t), t≧0, is either a Poisson or a Pólya process. These results are then compared and contrasted with the well-known Esscher approximation.

We consider a risk model in which the claim inter-arrivals and amounts depend on a markovian environment process. Semi-Markov risk models are so introduced in a quite natural way. We derive some quantities of interest for the risk process and obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the fairness of the risk (positive asymptotic non-ruin probabilities). These probabilities are explicitly calculated in a particular case (two possible states for the environment, exponential claim amounts distributions).

The paper presents an extension of the classical Cramér–Lundberg ruin theory: the famous upper bound for the ruin probability with an infinite time horizon can be extended in a certain sense to the short and middle term case. Furthermore, a relation between the average values of lifetime and ruin amount is given.