Leases for Lives: Life Contingent Contracts and the Emergence of Actuarial Science in Eighteenth-Century England - Hardcover

Bellhouse, David R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107111765 ISBN 13: 9781107111769

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Synopsis

Many historians of insurance have commented on the disconnect between the rise of English life insurance companies in the early eighteenth century and the mathematics behind the sound pricing of life insurance products that was developed at about the same time. Insurance and annuity promoters typically ignored this mathematical work. Bellhouse explores this issue, and shows that the early mathematical work was not motivated by insurance but instead by the fair valuation of life contingent contracts related to property. Even the work of the mathematician James Dodson in the creation of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, offering sound actuarially based premiums, did not change the industry in any significant way. The tipping point was a crisis in 1770 in which the philosopher and mathematician Richard Price, as well as other mathematicians, showed that a dozen or more recently formed annuity societies could not meet their financial obligations and were inviable.

About this title

Review

'This is a distinctive work of scholarship, visiting ground that has never been as thoroughly subjected to such deep and expert examination. Bellhouse is especially knowledgeable about early English probability and its milieu, and about actuarial science. There is no one comparable in this combination of skills, and he is a master of the relevant archives as well.' Stephen Stigler, University of Chicago

'Bellhouse has surveyed a relatively neglected but important literature in the development of probability and statistics. The book is written with care and meticulous attention to detail, and the results are particularly interesting.' Sandy Zabell, Northwestern University

'Bellhouse (statistics, Univ. of Western Ontario) has produced a one-of-a-kind history of actuarial science in 18th-century England ... All collections serving actuarial, history of science, and English history scholarship should have this informative, fascinating book. Summing Up: Recommended.' W. R. Lee, Choice

Book Description

This important work illuminates the early modern roots of two very contemporary concerns, real estate values and pension/annuity funding. It places in historical context the work of an active group of eighteenth-century mathematicians, and gives a resonant example of the vagaries of 'technology transfer' from mathematical sciences to commercial activities.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1107111765
• ISBN 13: 9781107111769
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270