The Centre for Market Design, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Risk Anal. 2021 Aug;41(8):1447-1462. doi: 10.1111/risa.13620. Epub 2020 Oct 30.
Imported goods create value in destination countries but also create biosecurity risk. Although widely used in other domains of the economy, risk markets have not been created to manage losses that occur when exotic pests and diseases are introduced with traded goods. In this article we show that not all biosecurity risks are insurable. Losses arising from effort needed to detect and respond to exotic pests and diseases that breach national borders appear to be insurable because entry of these threats and consequent response costs, can be regarded as random events. As pests and diseases establish and spread, however, loss of access to export markets and productivity losses display systematic risk and appear to be uninsurable. Other insurability criteria support this definition of the boundary of biosecurity risk markets. We use the Australian biosecurity system as an example, although the framework described in this study will be applicable to biosecurity systems worldwide. We argue that biosecurity risk insurance could be incorporated into the current biosecurity system but would require legislation mandating importers to purchase insurance. Advantages of actuarial pricing of biosecurity risk are: (i) an increase in economic efficiency to the extent that importers respond to the price of biosecurity risk; (ii) financial sustainability would improve because actuarial pricing creates a structural link between funds available for biosecurity activities and risk exposure; and (iii) equity issues evident in the current biosecurity system could be addressed because risk creators (importers) would fund response activities through the purchase of insurance.
进口商品在目的地国家创造价值，但也带来生物安全风险。尽管风险市场在经济的其他领域得到了广泛应用，但尚未针对因贸易商品引入外来害虫和疾病而导致的损失创建风险市场。在本文中，我们表明并非所有生物安全风险都可保险。由于检测和应对突破国界的外来害虫和疾病所需的努力而产生的损失似乎是可保的，因为这些威胁的进入和随之而来的应对成本可以被视为随机事件。然而，随着害虫和疾病的建立和传播，失去进入出口市场的机会和生产力损失则表现出系统性风险，似乎是不可保的。其他可保性标准支持这一生物安全风险市场边界的定义。我们以澳大利亚生物安全系统为例，尽管本研究中描述的框架将适用于全球的生物安全系统。我们认为，生物安全风险保险可以纳入当前的生物安全系统，但需要立法规定进口商必须购买保险。生物安全风险精算定价的优势在于：(i) 进口商对生物安全风险的价格做出反应，从而提高经济效率；(ii) 财务可持续性将得到改善，因为精算定价在可用的生物安全活动资金和风险暴露之间建立了结构性联系；(iii) 可以解决当前生物安全系统中存在的公平问题，因为风险创造者（进口商）将通过购买保险为应对活动提供资金。
