The encyclopedia of actuarial science
We give a short historical survey on why and how the Encyclopedia has emerged. We consider both the editorial and the managerial side of the project. We indicate some of the special features of the work.
Saved in:
| Date: | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Інститут математики НАН України
2006
|
| Online Access: | https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/4452 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Journal Title: | Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
| Cite this: | The encyclopedia of actuarial science / J.L. Teugels, H. Ramsey // Theory of Stochastic Processes. — 2006. — Т. 12 (28), № 3-4. — С. 1–11. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв.— англ. |
Institution
Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine| _version_ | 1859586204055371776 |
|---|---|
| author | Teugels, J.L. Ramsey, H. |
| author_facet | Teugels, J.L. Ramsey, H. |
| citation_txt | The encyclopedia of actuarial science / J.L. Teugels, H. Ramsey // Theory of Stochastic Processes. — 2006. — Т. 12 (28), № 3-4. — С. 1–11. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв.— англ. |
| collection | DSpace DC |
| description | We give a short historical survey on why and how the Encyclopedia has emerged. We consider both the editorial and the managerial side of the project. We indicate some of the special features of the work.
|
| first_indexed | 2025-11-27T11:04:55Z |
| format | Article |
| fulltext |
Theory of Stochastic Processes
Vol. 12 (28), no. 3–4, 2006, pp. 1–11
JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE1
We give a short historical survey on why and how the Encyclopedia has
emerged. We consider both the editorial and the managerial side of the
project. We indicate some of the special features of the work.
1. Historical Development
We give a short overview of what happened with the encyclopedia from its
conception in August 2000 until its appearance in July 2004.
1.1 Conception
The original idea to compile an Encyclopedia of Actuarial Science (EoAS)
emerged from discussions between the authors of this paper on the occasion
of the Joint ASA-IMS meeting in Indianapolis, August 2000. As one of the
world leaders in statistics publishing, Wiley exhibited at this meeting. Helen
Ramsey (HR) was a member of the Wiley team. HR’s first suggestion was
to publish a series of survey-type books covering the fields of Operations
Research and Econom(etr)ics. After some discussion it became apparent
that actuarial science was an area in which there might be a demand for a
reference work. Indeed, the subject had a long tradition from the academic
side as well as from practice. Moreover, possible links with economics and
with the financial world opened up market segments where the product
could be introduced.
Jef Teugels (JT) then accepted to think about an Encyclopedia of Ac-
tuarial Science but under the proviso that he could select a co-editor from
practice. In the past, JT had collaborated with Björn Sundt (BS) from
Vital Forskring ASA, Norway on a couple of scientific papers [3], [4] and [5]
and hence, he was a natural candidate coming from practice but who had
also served as an academic at the University in Bergen, Norway.
Wiley first undertook a market study. A questionnaire was sent to a
variety of potentially interested people from academia, insurance and rein-
surance companies and banks. The feedback from this investigation was
1Invited lecture and paper.
2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 60.00, 62.00, 62P05, 91.00, 91B30.
Key words and phrases. Life insurance, nonlife insurance, pensions, premium cal-
culations, reinsurance, reserving, risk theory, finance, economics, probability theory,
statistics.
1
2 JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
overwhelmingly positive. Some hundred individuals replied, offering com-
ments, suggestions and often cooperation. As a result, Wiley’s market re-
search lead to the decision that the project was given a go ahead. JT and
BS agreed to edit the volumes and publication was scheduled for June 2004.
1.2. Section Editors
The first main assignment for the editors was the compilation of a draft of
an alphabetical master list. Articles either related immediately to actuarial
science or they could be considered as necessary, supportive information.
Moreover a large number of potential topics that one could consider be-
longed to the grey zone in between. There clearly was a need for more
structure. Following the examples of other encyclopedias published by Wi-
ley like [1] and [2] the master list was subdivided over twelve sections with
a further 13-th for extra topics. The idea then was to rearrange the alpha-
betical list of more than 600 articles into as many sublists as there were
sections planned. For each of these sections the editors would then search
for section editors (SE).
The quest for section editors was started in the middle of 2001 and a list
of potential section editors was made up. During the market research, the
replies to the questionnaire already suggested a couple of obvious appoint-
ments. For the others the main editors tried to strike a balance between
people from academia and people from financial institutions like banks and
insurance companies. Attempts were also made to reach a wide geographical
spread of the entire editorial board.
The editors informed candidates how each of the section lists was con-
taining a number of more or less specific articles that needed to be covered
in that section. Evidently, some of the sections would overlap and occasion-
ally articles needed to be replaced or shifted to other sections. The ultimate
decision on what to include and in what format would then be taken after
negotiations with all of the section editors. All by all, the section editors
were asked to look for redundancy and completeness of the lists and their
views were used in designing the final list of sections and articles. For two
sections, the approached candidate accepted the task but requested the help
of a self-chosen co-editor.
By the Fall of 2001 all sections had their own editor. On 25 October
2001 the contracts between Wiley and the main editors were signed on the
premises of Vital Forskring ASA in Oslo, Norway. HR used the occasion to
explain the mechanisms that have been used in the development of previous
encyclopedias. She especially emphasized the need for a stringent time table
and the requested formats in which the final articles should be submitted.
It was also agreed that most if not all of the correspondence dealing with
EoAS should go via e-mail. Further, the main editors agreed which of twelve
sections would fall under their individual responsibility.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE 3
1.3. Contributions
From then on the major assignment to the section editors was to commis-
sion and encourage authors to write for the section. At their discretion and
to facilitate the work of the section editors, the main editors made auxiliary
lists of potential authors for specific articles. Again attempts were made for
a wide geographical spread and for decent representation of academics and
people from practice.
HR took care of the signing of the contracts by the SEs recommended
by JT and BS and dealt with a number of further technical matters. A
spreadsheet was created to keep track of all articles and contributors. To
facilitate the production process, each article received a seven digit identifier
that indicated its location in the final encyclopedia. Contracts out and back
were logged as were draft and final manuscripts once accepted by the SEs,
JT and BS. All SEs, JT and BS were regularly updated with progress to
keep the momentum going. This spreadsheet was later extended to include
aspects of the production process. Contributors were also provided by HR
with instructions about format and time scales.
On September 2002 the main editors met with HR on the occasion of
the Second Conference on Actuarial Science and Finance organized by the
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of the
Aegean on the Greek isle of Samos. Key problems were raised and solutions
developed. Some of the section editors asked or needed to be replaced and
alternatives were sought. Overall the project looked in pretty good shape.
It was decided to not wait too long before having a second meeting. This
then took place at the Wiley offices in Chichester on 21 and 22 March 2003.
At the meeting in Chichester a decision was made for the more-or-less final
master list of topics that needed to be included. It was realized that already
a fair percentage of the requested articles had been finished. However, as can
be expected from a work of this size, there remained a number of essential
gaps (articles as well as authors) while some rationalization of other articles
was necessary. The most important task for the main editors was the further
inclusion of all the articles into one single encyclopedia. This is done via
cross-referencing, a task that would consume a substantial amount of time
and energy from the main editors. Fortunately, some of the section editors
have been so kind to help substantially in this activity.
By March 2004 only a small number of articles was still missing because
the agreed authors did not deliver. As a final initiative the editors ap-
proached alternative authors for the most important lacunae.
1.4. Production and Marketing
As soon as a section editor received an article for his/her section, he/she
would control whether it fitted the requested content and format. If yes,
the article would then be sent to HR at the Wiley office as well as to JT
or BS who took care of the proper cross-referencing. The final articles
4 JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
were processed by Laserwords in India and HR’s involvement diminished to
answering queries, mainly about copyright issues and possible permissions
from other publishers. HR maintained a page count for each article.
Whilst production was in process Wiley’s marketing department swung
into action. A Website was created, leaflets designed, printed and circulated.
All major societies were contacted and several cooperated in promoting the
encyclopedia. International sales force included the encyclopedia in their
portfolios to libraries, agents and bookshops.
In productions like these that there is close cooperation between edi-
tors/authors and the publisher, each concentrating on their own areas of
expertise. It is also important to maintain constant communications be-
tween everyone involved. This ensures a scientifically excellent, commer-
cially successful and timely publication.
In September 2004 the EoAS was published as a three volume set. In
September 2006, an online version of the Encyclopedia was launched on
Wiley InterScience (see www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/eas), which uti-
lizes sophisticated linking and searching functionalities to further enhance
the usefulness of the Encyclopedia.
2. The Different Sections
Apart from some auxiliary items that will be discussed in a later section,
the main bulk of EoAS consists of 452 articles, spread over 1842 pages. The
articles are arranged in alphabetical order even when the commissioning was
done using the different sections. The originally planned Section 13: Extra
fortunately contained so few articles that they could be easily amalgamated
in one of the other 12 sections.
Here is the final list of these sections in alphabetical order with some
information on each one of them. Apart from the number of articles in the
section we mention names and affiliations of the section editor(s). We also
give a few highlights of the content of each section.
(1) Claims Distributions
• Number of articles: 41
• Section Editor: Gordon WILLMOT, Department of Statistics
and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
• Main highlights: The main emphasis is on a broad coverage of
distributions, applicable in actuarial science: parametric, dis-
crete and continuous distributions in one and more variables,
with special mention of extreme value laws, phase-type distribu-
tions and the Sundt-Jewell class. Aggregate loss and individual
risk models fit into this section. Elements dealing with depen-
dence (like copulas) and recursions are treated as well.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE 5
(2) Collective Risk Theory
• Number of articles: 19
• Section Editor: Elias SHIU, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences,
University of Iowa, USA
• Main highlights: Claim number and claim size processes form
the backbone of collective risk theory that deals with risk pro-
cesses and in particular with the theory of ruin, its probability,
time and severity.
(3) Direct Nonlife Insurance
• Number of articles: 62
• Section Editors: Gary VENTER, Guy Carpenter Instrat, New
York, U.S.A. & Greg TAYLOR, Taylor Fry Consulting Actuar-
ies, Sydney, Australia
• Main highlights: Among the many forms of nonlife insurance
we mention the portfolio’s: accident, aquaculture, automobile,
aviation, burglary, crop, earthquake, liability, finance, loss-of-
profit, fire, home owners, marine, property, sickness, travel and
worker’s compensation.
(4) Economics
• Number of articles: 28
• Section Editors: Michel DENUIT, Institut des Sciences Actu-
arielles & Institut de Statistique, Université Catholique de Lou-
vain, Belgium & Marco SCARSINI, Dipartimento di Statistica
e Matematica Applicata, Universitá di Torino, Italy
• Main highlights: Game and utility theory provide basic eco-
nomic frameworks that are dealt with in detail. Market theory
is treated together with effects like fraud, risk aversion, free
riding and risk sharing.
(5) Finance
• Number of articles: 36
• Section Editor: Andrew CAIRNS, Actuarial Mathematics and
Statistics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Main highlights: Market models such as Black-Scholes and
Wilkie’s model make up a substantial part of this section that
also deals with dynamical financial analysis and financial engi-
neering. Among the different aspects of risks we mention credit
risk, foreign exchange risk, interest rate risk, risk measures (i.a.
value-at-risk) and risk management via hedging and derivatives.
(6) Life, Pension & Health Insurance
• Number of articles: 44
• Section Editor: Angus MACDONALD, Actuarial Mathematics
and Statistics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
6 JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
• Main highlights: Aside from pension issues, this section deals
with special portfolio’s like disability, group life, health and
long-term care. Practical aspects like annuities, life tables and
social security are treated as well as supporting topics as de-
mography and mortality.
(7) Organizations, Journals & History
• Number of articles: 93
• Section Editor: Jean LEMAIRE, Insurance and Risk Manage-
ment Department, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, U.S.A.
• Main highlights: Most of the existing national actuarial soci-
eties have submitted an item for this section. Also the inter-
national actuarial bodies are well documented. Information is
provided on the traditional actuarial journals. Historical arti-
cles are included on actuarial education and professionalism as
well as on two dozen of the most important people from acad-
emia and practice who have left a mark on the development of
actuarial science.
(8) Premium Calculation, Nonlife
• Number of articles: 11
• Section Editor: Shaun WANG, SCOR Reinsurance Company,
Ithaca, Illinois, USA
• Main highlights: This section deals with premium principles,
bonus-malus systems, experience rating, credibility theory and
the ordering of risks.
(9) Probability Theory
• Number of articles: 47
• Section Editor: Sören ASMUSSEN, Department of Theoretical
Statistics, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Main highlights: This supporting section deals with a variety of
stochastic processes that have shown their relevance within ac-
tuarial science: counting processes (like point, renewal or Pois-
son processes) are treated as well as martingales, Markov, dif-
fusion and Lévy processes. Queueing, fuzzy set, central limit
and extreme value theory are covered. Important methods like
MCMC, Itô calculus and coupling are handled as well.
(10) Reinsurance
• Number of articles: 25
• Section Editor: Maria de Lourdes CENTENO, Instituto Supe-
rior de Economico e Gestão, Universidade Técnico de Lisboa,
Portugal
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE 7
• Main highlights: The main types of reinsurance are treated
in detail: Excess-of-loss, proportional, quota share, stop-loss,
surplus and treaties based on extremes. Specific applications to
life, catastrophes and finance are covered.
(11) Reserving, Nonlife
• Number of articles: 10
• Section Editor: Richard VERRALL, Department of Actuarial
Science and Statistics, City University, London, UK
• Main highlights: Claims reserving in non-life insurance is
treated by credibility methods and Bayesian theory. The chain-
ladder and separation methods are duly covered as well as re-
serving based on the Kalman filter.
(12) Statistics
• Number of articles: 36
• Section Editor: Josef STEINEBACH, Mathematisches Institut,
Universität zu Köln, Germany
• Main highlights: This section deals with those statistical con-
cepts and methods that have a strong influence on actuarial
science. Methods that are given are: Bayesian, parametric,
non-parametric, regression and time series. Reliability, neural
networks and survival analysis are treated as well as information
on splines, outliers, competing risks, censoring, frailty, resam-
pling and robustness.
3. Contributors
While the breadth of the encyclopedia can be appreciated from the vast
table of contents, its depth has been guaranteed by the choice and compe-
tence of the wide slate of renowned experts on different aspects of actuarial
science. From the adjoining table one realizes that serious attempts have
been made to include authors both from academia and from financial in-
stitutions. Authors are coming from 43 different countries. Let us make a
number of observations.
• For obvious reasons the United States, United Kingdom, Australia
and Canada have the strongest representation.
• Looking at the column of academic people, one notices that other
countries with a strong and historical education in actuarial sci-
ence are well represented. This is specifically the case for Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, Germany and Sweden.
• When a country has only one author most often he/she was involved
in the article dealing with the actuarial association within that coun-
try.
8 JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
COUNTRY ACADEMIA BUSINESS TOTAL
Argentina 0 5 5
Australia 10 16 26
Austria 2 1 3
Belgium 10 4 14
Brazil 0 2 2
Canada 16 3 19
China 1 0 1
(Hong Kong) 3 2 5
Croatia 0 2 2
Cyprus 0 1 1
Czech Republic 0 3 3
Denmark 10 3 13
Estonia 0 1 1
Finland 2 2 4
France 4 4 8
Georgia 0 1 1
Germany 18 4 22
Ghana 0 1 1
Greece 4 1 5
Hungary 0 1 1
Iceland 1 0 1
Israel 1 1 0
Italy 1 1 2
Japan 0 1 1
Latvia 0 1 1
Malaysia 0 1 1
Mexico 1 4 5
Netherlands 6 2 8
New Zealand 0 1 1
Norway 6 7 13
Pakistan 0 1 1
Poland 3 1 4
Portugal 1 2 3
Romania 1 0 1
Singapore 0 1 1
Slovakia 0 1 1
Slovenia 0 1 1
South Africa 3 0 3
Spain 2 1 3
Sweden 7 2 9
Switzerland 3 9 12
Taiwan 1 1 2
Ukraine 0 1 1
United Kingdom 23 8 31
United States 35 38 73
TOTAL 175 142 317
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE 9
• Because of its long tradition in financial institutions also Switzerland
has a strong representation on the business side.
• We have listed Hong Kong on a separate line even when it belongs
to the People’s Republic of China. However, looking at the table
one realizes that Hong Kong has a long tradition in the financial
and insurance world.
4. Informational Elements
Each volume starts out with three lists.
• (i) The Editorial Board on pages v − vi;
• (ii) the Contents, listing all articles in alphabetical order on pages
vii − xii;
• (iii) the list of Contributors in alphabetical order on pages xiii −
xix;
• (iv) a long list of abbreviations and acronyms on pages xxv −
xxxiv. Like in most other technical subjects, actuarial scientists
use a great variety of abbreviations and acronyms. Rather than in-
cluding them in the subject list, the publisher collected the list in
the starting pages of each volume. Some of the very crucial abbre-
viations (like CAPM, DFA, LIBOR, etc.) are still repeated in the
subject list (see 5.2).
5. Indexes
To facilitate the use of EoAS, two indexes have been included. We give
a short discussion of each of them.
5.1. Author Index
A first list on pages 1769-1772 deals with the location of the contributions
made by the different authors. Boldface letters refer to the volume while
the other figures indicate the precise pages on which the contribution can
be found. One notices that some authors have been extremely productive.
5.2. Subject Index
This list on pages 1773-1842 is included at the end of volume 3 and is
crucial to the entire encyclopedia. For this reason its length exceeds 35
pages. Here are some of its uses.
• Of course, the list contains all articles for which there is a separate
article in the EoAS. However, this is not the main function of the
list as the EoAS is built up alphabetically anyway.
10 JEF L. TEUGELS AND HELEN RAMSEY
• A number of actuarial concepts carry different names in different
environments while being essentially the same. For example, C-2
risk in USA is the same as insurance risk in UK. As the encyclopedia
was intended to be of use worldwide, it was necessary to include both
items somewhere. So, one name is included in the alphabetical list
while the other is also taken up in the subject list with a reference
to its treatment in the alphabetical list.
• The list is also intended to indicate to the reader all articles where
a concept has been vitally used. Sometimes, such a reference may
be novel to the user.
• Sometimes the boundaries between the different sections is rather
diffuse. In such cases the article was assigned to one specific section
only. A reader interested in the article but from the point of view of
the other section should be able to properly trace the subject thanks
to the subject list.
6. Guidelines
Apart from the indexes, there are a number of elements that should help
the user of EoAS. We add a few thoughts on each of them.
6.1. Preface
Creating EoAS has been really challenging. The preface, repeated in each
volume on pages xxi−xxii, explains the goals laid out at the conception of
EoAS and the procedure followed in realizing its goals. As the encyclope-
dia was intended to be of help to academic researchers as well as to people
in practice, EoAS leaves ample room for established tools based on prac-
tical experience in insurance companies as well as more theoretical results
developed in academic environments.
6.2. Cross Referencing
The procedure followed in EoAS for cross referencing is briefly outlined on
page xxiii and has been the same as for previous encyclopedia’s like [1] and
[2]. The main goal of the referencing system is to take care that everything
necessary will be covered. There are four types of cross reference:
(1) something within the text which is emboldened but is not necessarily
the exact title of another article,
(2) also in the text but (see XXX) where XXX is the exact article title,
(3) at the end of the article (see also XXX),
(4) and not an article at all but XXX see YYY.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ACTUARIAL SCIENCE 11
As explained before, the actual referencing has been done by the main
editors together with the Wiley people.
6.3. Article Structure
Most articles of some length contain the following information, not nec-
essarily in this order.
• The abstract gives a summary of the article and its role within EoAS.
• Then comes the main body, almost always structured according to
the rules followed by scientific writing.
• At the end of the article, the conclusions indicate how the article
has fulfilled its task.
• An extremely important part of any article is a list of references,
guiding the user to the relevant literature that should cover the
most recent developments. Sometimes the author even gives the
user indications on further reading.
• Related articles refer the reader to other articles in EoAS where
similar or/and related concepts are treated.
Acknowledgment. The authors take great pleasure in thanking Björn
Sundt, all the section editors and the contributors that have been so instru-
mental in the realization of this large scale project. Our thanks also go the
Publishers of this work for their initiative in creating the encyclopedia as
well as their constant and devoted participation throughout the project.
References
1. Encyclopedia of Biostatistics, 8-Volume Set, Peter Armitage and Theodore
Colton, editors, J. Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, 1998.
2. Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, 4-Volume Set, Abdel H. El-Shaarawi and Walter
W. Piegorsch, editors, J. Wiley & Sons,Ltd., Chichester, 2001.
3. B. Sundt & J.L. Teugels, A stop-loss experience rating scheme for fleets of cars,
Insurance, Math. Econom., 10, (1991), 173–179.
4. B. Sundt & J.L. Teugels, Ruin estimates under interest force, Insurance, Math.
Econom., 16, (1995), 7–22.
5. B. Sundt & J.L. Teugels, The adjustment function in ruin estimates under in-
terest force, Insurance, Math. Econom., 20, (1997), 85–94.
Department of Mathematics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3001
Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium; and EURANDOM, Technische Universiteit
Eindhoven, P.O.Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, the Netherlands
E-mail address: jef.teugels@wis.kuleuven.be, jteugels@eurandom.tue.nl
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, PO19
8SQ, UK
E-mail address: hramsey@wiley.co.uk
|
| id | nasplib_isofts_kiev_ua-123456789-4452 |
| institution | Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
| issn | 0321-3900 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-27T11:04:55Z |
| publishDate | 2006 |
| publisher | Інститут математики НАН України |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | Teugels, J.L. Ramsey, H. 2009-11-11T15:16:49Z 2009-11-11T15:16:49Z 2006 The encyclopedia of actuarial science / J.L. Teugels, H. Ramsey // Theory of Stochastic Processes. — 2006. — Т. 12 (28), № 3-4. — С. 1–11. — Бібліогр.: 5 назв.— англ. 0321-3900 https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/4452 We give a short historical survey on why and how the Encyclopedia has emerged. We consider both the editorial and the managerial side of the project. We indicate some of the special features of the work. en Інститут математики НАН України The encyclopedia of actuarial science Article published earlier |
| spellingShingle | The encyclopedia of actuarial science Teugels, J.L. Ramsey, H. |
| title | The encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| title_full | The encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| title_fullStr | The encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| title_full_unstemmed | The encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| title_short | The encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| title_sort | encyclopedia of actuarial science |
| url | https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/4452 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT teugelsjl theencyclopediaofactuarialscience AT ramseyh theencyclopediaofactuarialscience AT teugelsjl encyclopediaofactuarialscience AT ramseyh encyclopediaofactuarialscience |