Latest Posts
Mortality statistics in Australia
Every year, the ABS puts out an analysis of mortality statistics for the calendar year, imaginatively entitled Deaths. And most years I post a quick analysis. The most recent one is based on mortality statistics for the calendar year 2012. This year I’ve focused on mortality improvement, and what has beenContinue Reading
Glass ceiling statistics
Back as part of the International Women’s Day festivities, Tony Abbott, speaking at an event in Canberra on Tuesday to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, declared that while we still have some work to do Australia is a nation which has just about “smashed every glass ceiling”. “If you look at ourContinue Reading
Is MoS Accounting to blame for the woes of the Australian retail life insurance industry?
At the Actuaries Institute Financial Services Forum, in May, I’m running a Panel discussion entitled Is MOS Accounting Responsible for the Woes of the Retail Life Industry? This post gives some background to the question and why it seemed a good topic for a panel discussion. What are the woes of theContinue Reading
Quick hit: Bayesian Statistics
Bayseian probability seems quite obvious once it is explained, but it is incredibly counterintuitive. Using Bayesian methods is one of the “thinking slow” methods that Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow identifies – very few people can do it intuitively. So via Barry Ritholtz, here is a great example ofContinue Reading
Management ideas come from surprising places
This week at work we had an hour long session with Tim Sharp from the Happiness Institute. He was talking about the power of optimism, and why optimism is not just positive thinking, but is about focusing on the positives, on those things you have control over, and just getting onContinue Reading
Book Review: The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life
The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life, by Uri Gneezy and John List When I discovered this book, I realised it was the perfect book for this blog. A book about behavioural economics, which also examines gender and other discrimination through an economic lens. WhatContinue Reading
Blogging for actuaries
There are as many schools of thought about blogging as there are blogs. Everyone has their own reason, but here are a few of my favourites: It gives you a creative outlet Blogging is a creative activity. The act of crafting a post, working out what your message isContinue Reading
The gender gap in longevity
People continue to live longer and longer around the world (for an interesting discussion of how superannuation should respond, see Paul Keating on Cuffelinks), which is mostly good. But different parts of populations have quite different experiences of mortality improvement. The (UK) Institute of Actuaries publishes a regular longevity bulletin. TheContinue Reading
Book roundup for 2013
As an annual exercise, I’ve done a quick review of all the non fiction books I read in 2013. You can find it here. Enjoy! The 2012 one was here.Continue Reading
Life insurance in Australia – profits falling
A few months ago, I posted about some press actuaries had received about their crystal balls proving inadequate in the life insurance industry. Well the news hasn’t been getting any better. Recent reports from two of Australia’s major life reinsurers have continued the bad news. Most recently, APRA released theirContinue Reading