4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH DUE TO THE EVIDENT PRACTICAL...

8.4  Suggestions  for  Future  Research  

Due to the evident practical difficulties in creating the conditions for a viable and sustainable private

flood insurance market that have been described in this thesis, it might be considered an easier and

more profitable route to introduce flood insurance to the business sector first (EP, 2013). Business

interruption costs after floods have far more impact on individuals’ wealth and on the economy as a

whole than domestic damage from which it is relatively inexpensive and simple to recover as losses are

far less interrelated. Selling insurance products that hedge flood risk exposure within the Dutch business

sector, both domestically and internationally, may be more a more viable choice for private insurance

companies as well as being more socially useful for the Netherlands as a whole. This could be a fruitful

avenue for future research.

A possible observation of wider relevance to the study of sustainable development that can be inferred

from the above conclusion concerns the reason why the most recent proposal from the Dutch

Association of Insurers was rejected. Competition laws often restrict private companies if they seek to

operate (and make profit) in domains that have been traditionally seen as the preserve of the public

sector. Dubbink (2003) predicted this difficulty would occur when society moves from a ‘direct’ to ‘indirect’

responsibility model of environmental governance. In asking for mandatory flood insurance, the

Association was in essence seeking quasi-governmental powers which, as predicted by Dubbink,

encountered resistance on grounds of competition. If the private sector is to share more responsibility

with the public sector for environmental governance, for example, offering private flood insurance for

climate change adaptation, it would be interesting to understand different ways of framing the private

sector’s involvement. If accusations of excessive profit seeking by private actors operating inside the

public domain are to be avoided, changes will be necessary in both the law and in public discourse.

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