Accepting applications for the 2025 Geneva Association Ernst Meyer Prize
The Judging Committee for the Ernst Meyer Prize comprises Professor Christophe Courbage, Professor Andreas Richter and Professor Richard Watt. Previous winning theses have focused on topics such as health insurance plan design, the economics of disaster risk and retirement planning. A full list of past winners and their thesis titles is available below.
- Submitted theses should have been accepted by the PhD Committee in 2024 (the calendar year preceding the submission deadline).
- Submissions are possible in one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish, German.
- The prize is CHF 5,000.
- The deadline for applications is 19 January 2025.
Applications for the award should include all of the following:
- A PDF version of the thesis.
- An English language abstract of 1,000–1,200 words.
- Two recommendations (written in English), each providing a review of the submitted work.
- Curriculum vitae in English.
Applications should be sent to ErnstMeyerPrize@genevaassociation.org
Past winners
Ernst Meyer Prize Winners
Ernst Meyer, Managing Director of Allianz, Munich, was a founding father of The Geneva Association. He died just before the start of its activities.
2024
Sebastian Hinck (University of Hamburg)
Risk Taking and Insurance Demand with Multiple Sources of Risk
Jieyu Lin
Insurance-Provider Type and Market Equilibrium: Sequential-Game Analyses of Risk Assessment, Capitalization, and Operational Efficiency
2023
Philip Mulder (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)
Essays on the Economics of Disaster Risk
Mark Benedikt Schultze (Ulm University)
Retirement Planning – An Analysis from Views of Clients and Insurance Companies
2022
Prize not awarded
2021
Chenyuan Liu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Essays on Health Insurance Plan Design
Tobias Huber (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Essays on Household Behavior in Insurance Contexts – Theoretical Insights and Empirical Observations
2020
Lu Li (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Essays on Information, Risk Preferences, and Risk Management
Stefan Schelling (Ulm University)
Behavioral Aspects of Product Design and Demand in Retirement Savings
2019*
Christian Kubitza (Goethe University)
Essays on Financial Stability and Insurance Markets
Alexis Louass (Ecole Polytechnique Paris)
Insurability of Catastrophic Risks
*Starting in 2019, The Geneva Association matches each award to the year in which the prize is announced, rather than the prior year in which the work was produced.
2017
Francisco Ceballos (Georg-August University Göttingen)
Demand and Design Considerations for Smallholder Farmers’ Weather Index Insurance Products
2016
Arnaud Goussebaïle (Ecole Polytechnique Paris)
Prevention and Insurance of Natural Disasters
2015
Tse-Ling Teh (Columbia University)
Governing Uncertainties: Financial Policies for Risk
Maddalena Ferrana (Toulouse School of Economics)
Three Essays on the Decision Making under Risk and Equity Concerns
2014
Maria Polyakova (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT))
Regulation of public health insurance
2013
Richard Peter (LMU Munich)
Essays on Selected Problems in Risk Classification and Risk Reduction
2012
Nathaniel Hendren (Harvard University)
Essays on Information and Insurance Markets
2011
Petra Steinorth (St John’s University)
Essays on the Economics of Selected Multi-Period Insurance Decisions with Private Information
2010
Sabine Wende (University of Cologne)
Three Essays on the Effects of Diversification and Organisational Form of Insurance Companies
2009
Renaud Bourlès (GREQAM)
Essays on the Stability of Mutual Insurance Agreements
2008
James R. Thompson (University of Waterloo)
Insurance and Credit Risk Transfer: A Study of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection
2007
Nadine Verena Gatzert (University of St. Gallen)
Implicit Options in Life Insurance: Valuation and Risk Assessment
Alexander Kling (University of Ulm)
Modellierung, Bewertung und Risikoanalyse von Zinsgarantien in konventionellen deutschen Lebensversicherungs-verträgen
2006
Wenan Fei
Secondary Risks in Insurance Markets
Yijia Lin (Williamson College of Business Administration)
Mortality Risk Management
2005
Bidénam Kambia-Chopin
Prevention of Risks, Insurance Markets and Environmental Liability: Essays on Incentive Theory
2004
Jörg Schiller (Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung)
Insurance Fraud as an Economic Problem: A Contractual Approach
2003
Prize not awarded
2002
Amy Finkelstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Adverse Selection and Government Intervention in Life and Health Insurance Markets
2001
Prize not awarded
2000
Achim Wambach
New Perspectives on Insurance Markets and Adverse Selection
1999
Christophe Courbage
Risk, Health and Prevention
Andreas Richter
On the Function and Design of Liability Rules when Parties are Risk Averse – An Economic Analysis Especially Considering the Risk of Cumulative Losses and Imperfect Insurance Markets
1998
Göran T. Hägg
An Institutional Analysis of Insurance Regulation –The Case of Sweden and Mattias Polborn for a thesis entitled Three Essays in Insurance
1997
Sandrine Spaeter-Loehrer (University of Louise Pasteur and University of Montreal)
The Costs Function of the Insurer and the Prudence Behaviour of the Insured: A Theoretical Study of Optimal Insurance Contracts
1996
Bert Kramer (The University of Groningen)
N.E.W.S.: A Model for the Evaluation of Non-Life Insurance Companies
1995
Svein-Arne Person (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)
Pricing Life Insurance Contracts under Financial Uncertainty
1994
Prize not awarded
1993
Patrick Scarmure (University of Toulouse)
Essais sur la demande d’assurance en présence de risques multiples
1992
Martin Nell (University of Hamburg)
Versicherungsinduzierte Verhaltensänderungen von Versicherungsunternehmen-Eine Analyse der Substitutions, Moral Hazard – und Markteffekte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Krankenversicherung
1991
Prize not awarded
1990
Prize not awarded
1989
Wolf-Rüdiger Heilmann (Karlsruhe University)
Fundamentals of Risk Theory
1988
Christian Gollier (Catholic University, Louvain)
Inter-Generational Risk Sharing and Unemployment
1987
James C. Riley (Indiana University)
Sickness, Recovery and Death
1986
Eric Briys (HEC-ISA Center, Paris)
Theory of the Optimal Demand on Non-Life Insurance
1985
Jean Lemaire (University of Pennsylvania)
Automobile Insurance
1984
Georges Szpiro (University of Pennsylvania)
Risk Aversion in Insurance
1983
Prize not awarded
1982
Jean-Paul Cresta (Toulouse University)
Théorie des marchés d’assurance avec information imparfaite
1981
Prize not awarded
1980
Yves Roy (Laval University, Quebec)
A Stochastic Simulation Model for Reinsurance Decision-Making by Ceding Companies
1979
Prize not awarded
1978
Hans-Peter Sterk (Mannheim University)
Selbstbeteiligung unter risikotheoretischen Aspekten
1977
Roland Eisen (Munich University)
Theorie des Versicherungs gleichgewicht
1976
Dennis Moffet (Laval University, Quebec)
Essays in the Economics of Insurance