Impact of major catastrophes on the performance of European non-life (re)insurers: an international comparison.

Summary As a result of the aggravation of catastrophic risks, we have witnessed for almost two decades an exceptional mutation and evolution of financial intermediation, in particular that related to the insurance and reinsurance sectors. This thesis takes a close look at the insurance and reinsurance markets, mainly in Europe, and provides an assessment of their performance in the presence of major natural and technical catastrophes, identified as major risks. Each of the chapters proposes an analysis of the impact of major losses on the performance of European insurers, by testing the robustness of their loss ratio (chapter 1) and by studying the variability of their stock returns (chapter 2). An extension of this study consists in conducting an international comparison with the American and Japanese insurance markets (chapter 3). In all three chapters, we have taken into account the role of regulation in each market.