Operations Research

  • 1957 – SOA – Operations Research, Society of Actuaries – 5p
  • 1980 – AP – Models in Insurance Paradigms Puzzles, Communications and Revolutions – Operations Research, William S. Jewell – 128p 
  • 1988 – SOA – Applications of Operations-Research Technique in Insurance, Arnold F. Shapiro, Society of Actuaries – 16p
  • 1995 – SOA – Operations in Research in Insurance: A Review, by Patrick L. Brockett and Xiaohua Xia, tsa95v475 – Society of Actuaries – 82p
  • 1998 06 – SOA – Breakthrough ideas: Stint in WWII operations research unit was just the beginning, by Jacqueline Bitowt, act-1998-vol32-iss06-bitowt – Society of Actuaries – 2p
  • 1968 – SOA – Research in Operations Research, tsa68v20pt2dn56ab9 – Society of Actuaries – 32p
    • HAROLD G. INGRAHAM, JR. : The best way to introduce this topic is to describe briefly the three books published by LIAMA early in 1967 under the heading “LIAMA Research in perspective.” Each book deals with different areas of LIAMA’s research, describing what has been done and the problems that all of us in the life insurance industry face in our efforts to serve the public most effectively.
    • The book entitled Recruiting, Selection, Training, and Supervision in Life Insurance deals with sources of recruits and the establishment of recruiting goals. The validity of the aptitude index is discussed, and a research study indicating the beneficial effect on survival rates of precontract training is described. A section is devoted to the selection and termination rates of agency managers. An evaluation is made of specific methods of training and supervision–for example, the sales method index, which was designed by LIAMA as a tool to help the supervisor help the agent to analyze his strengths and weaknesses and to benefit by past experience.
    • Another book, Cost and Compensation in Life Insurance, illustrates a method of determining a general agent’s present and probable future financial situation. It defines and measures the aggregate value of a given cohort of agents on the basis of various survival, production, and policy lapse rates and average per capita costs of induction and maintenance. A functional cost program is described. Considerable space is devoted to patterns of agents’ commission earnings and the development of financing plans for new agents.
    • The third book, Markets in Life Insurance, analyzes various sales and ownership trends. Of particular interest are the studies of persistency–by type and length of service of the agent, by premium mode, and by buyer income level–and of orphaned business.
    • LIAMA has several research committees, and a brief review of a few of their activities in 1967 may be of interest.