Risk Management and Insurance [Hardcover]

Scott Harrington (Author), Gregory Niehaus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0072339705 | ISBN-13: 978-0072339703 | Edition: 2

For many years, introductory insurance textbooks presented insurance as a subject based in contracts. Slowly, the course has moved toward a consumer orientation, providing students with a broad, descriptive survey of the insurance field, covering topics such as legal aspects, life and health, and property and liability. Over the past 10 years, textbooks began to promote, and to a limited degree, incorporate a stronger business risk management component while maintaining a consumer orientation. Harrington/Niehaus' Risk Management and Insurance 2e is written to take the next step offering the essential aspects of insurance contracts and the insurance industry while providing a substantially more conceptual analysis and attention to business risk management and public policy issues that exists in current texts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 2 edition (July 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072339705
• ISBN-13: 978-0072339703
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Insurance > Risk Management

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Reference, August 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Risk Management and Insurance (Hardcover)

Our organization is making a transition from reinsurance only to providing risk management services. This transition has posed many challenges, including training of our employees. This text has provided us a readable reference for employees to learn more about risk and risk management. Reviews from our staff are good.

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, October 4, 2011

By 

Claudia - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Risk Management and Insurance (Paperback)

quick sending and when I didn't required the book anymore the return process was without any problems!! Thank you very much!!

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Book Guaranteed to Promote Risk Management Aversion, April 7, 2010

By 

Ahmet Celebiler (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Risk Management and Insurance (Paperback)

Two distinguished academician have spent an incredible amount of time and energy and thought to prepare and publish a book to replace all books on the subject. Unfortunately their failure resulted in a nightmare for students who are forced to read this book and base their ideas, values and knowledge of risk management and insurance on this book.

If I had had the misfortune of having this book as a text in a class, I would never have chosen my profession in risk management and insurance. If I had to use this book as the text of my course, I would refuse to teach risk management and Insurance in Undergraduate or Graduate classes.

The authors achieve partial success only in relation to the first of their four major objectives. The book is a detriment to good decision making in real conditions, definitely does not enhance the ability of the reader to think critically and analytically, and is totally useless in explaining how insurance markets perform.

After totally memorizing this book you can be an academician and get the new students to memorize the book again, in a vicious circle. It is impossible for the reader who is not already a professional to discern what is important and what is significant among the plethora of useful and totally unnecessary information.

There are no real life cases. There are no real people, there is not even a mention of psychology, perception, behaviour, culture, education, attitude.

The insurance companies and the reinsurance companies and all the agents and the brokers and the loss adjusters, salvage companies, etc. are just there. Why they are there, and what makes them tick is not important. Everyone is totally aware of their risks and all the alternative methods of loss control, transfer and retention. They all live in a totally defined sterile environment where all the players are logical and try for the optimum with full knowledge of their total legal, fiscal, geographical, mechanical, technical and economic and administrative environment. And, no one has a social or psychological environment.

Anyone who has studied this subject with this text book would have been totally flabbergasted with the recent crises, the previous Lloyds scandals, the price fixing of the major brokers and reinsurers, the many tricks of the insureds, and the terrible decision making of both insurers and insureds on issues of risk and insurance management.

It is as if this book negates the gamut of the NGOs related to risk management and insurance, and requires that all risk and insurance professionals become mathematicians and statisticians, some of whom would not know what to do if questioned by Marilyn Vos Savant in relation to the probabilities of the car or the goat behind the door.

I am sorry that I was unable to write with the "Principle of Good Will" in mind, but that is totally lacking in the book as well.

Unless you hate your students, do not use this as "The" text book. And if you want to motivate your employees to understand more about risk and risk management or insurance, do not give them this book in a corporate setting.