In January 1976, Raymond Barre, the first President of The Geneva Association, and Orio Giarini, its first Secretary General, founded The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance with the main goal of supporting and encouraging research in the economics of risk and insurance. At that time, research in the field of insurance was still embryonic and insurance was regarded as peripheral social activity. When sustained economic growth gained traction, the function of insurance gradually emerged as a key contributor to economic development. By integrating uncertainty into economic theory and benefiting from the progress of both financial economics and decision theory, research developed further in the field of insurance economics and risk management, and is now prolific. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance undeniably contributed to this evolution and its impact on research in insurance has largely exceeded what its two founding members could have expected. This volume is a special collection of papers celebrating 40 Years of The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance. The collection looks back at the storied history of The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance and features papers from some of the esteemed authors who have contributed to the journal in its lifetime. This collection of papers highlights just a few of the many themes addressed in the papers published by the journal since it was created. Nevertheless, the selection exemplifies the richness and variety of topics the field of insurance covers.

Technological change in healthcare has led to huge improvements in health services and the health status of populations. It is also pinpointed as the main driver of healthcare expenditure. Although offering remarkable benefits, changes in technology are not free and often entail significant financial, as well as physical or social risks. These need to be balanced out in the setting of government regulations, insurance contracts, and individual's decisions to use and consume certain technologies. With this in mind, this book addresses the following important objectives: to provide a detailed analysis of what technological change is; to identify drivers of innovation in several healthcare areas; to present existing mechanisms and processes for ensuring and valuing efficiency and development in the use of medical technologies; and to analyze the impact of advances in medical technology on health, healthcare expenditure, and health insurance.
Each of the seventeen chapters summarizes an important issue concerning the innovation debate and contributes to a better understanding of the role innovation has both at the macro level and at the delivery (meso) and micro level in the healthcare sector. The effectiveness of innovation in improving people's welfare depends on its diffusion and inception by the relevant agents in the health production process, and this book recognizes the multi-faceted contribution of policy makers, regulators, managers, technicians, consumers and patients to this technology.
This book offers the first truly global economic analysis of healthcare technologies, taking the subject beyond simply economic evaluation and exploring the behavioral aspects, organization and incentives for new technology developments, and the adoption and diffusion of these technologies.