general liability insurance. Analysis of over 60,000 observations of insurance market
variables by firm and by state from 1985 through 1991 indicates that tort reform had a
restraining effect on losses and premiums, with a net positive effect on profitability (ie, a
negative effect on loss ratios). The stabilizing effect on insurance market profitability was
manifested, in part, by reducing the effect on current loss ratios of the high loss ratios of the …