The Real Estate Risk Fix: Insurance-Linked Securitization in the Florida Metropolis

This PhD critically examines the origins, operations, and limits of insurance-linked securitization (ILS) as a ‘real estate risk fix’ in the Florida urban context. The primary aim is to demonstrate how, why, and where ILS markets are constituted through Florida’s real estate sector, and to consider what this close link means for the political economy of Florida cities in the context of mounting climate risks. Using a novel mixed-methods research strategy, the study investigates this real estate risk fix across three main sites of analysis: (i) Florida public policymaking efforts, which play a critical role in connecting ILS risk capital with residential insured risk, (ii) Florida primary insurer underwriting and risk transfer practices, through which real estate risks are sourced and circulated in value form on global risk capital markets, and (iii) Florida cities, within which the flow of risk capital is vital to both private real
estate lending and public finance. Through the case of ILS in Florida cities, the project extends David Harvey’s seminal theory of the spatial fix, and the related work of Leigh Johnson, to conceptualize and investigate the relationships between finance, the built environment, and climate risk in a new and critical light. In doing so, the project generates multiple conceptual and empirical insights relevant to both scholars and policymaker-practitioners.