Equilibrium Reinsurance Strategy and Mean Residual Life Function

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between the equilibrium reinsurance strategy and the tail of the distribution of the risk. Since Mean Residual Life (MRL) has a close relationship with the tail of the distribution, we consider two classes of risk distributions, Decreasing Mean Residual Life (DMRL) and Increasing Mean Residual Life (IMRL) distributions, which can be used to classify light-tailed and heavy-tailed distributions, respectively. We assume that the underlying risk process is modelled by the classical Cramér-Lundberg model process. Under the mean-variance criterion, by solving the extended Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, we derive the equilibrium reinsurance strategy for the insurer and the reinsurer under DMRL and IMRL, respectively. Furthermore, we analyze how to choose the reinsurance premium to make the insurer and the reinsurer agree with the same reinsurance strategy. We find that under the case of DMRL, if the distribution and the risk aversions satisfy certain conditions, the insurer and the reinsurer can adopt a reinsurance premium to agree on a reinsurance strategy, and under the case of IMRL, the insurer and the reinsurer can only agree with each other that the insurer do not purchase the reinsurance.