Analytical Steps Towards a Numerical Calculation of the Ruin Probability for a Finite Period When the Risk Process is of the Poisson Type or the More General Type Studied by Sparre Andersen

As is well-known, in the early 60's a Swedish committee set to work at the numerical calculation of the distribution function of the total amount of claims and of the related stop loss premiums in the Poisson and Polya cases (Bohman and Esscher [6]). Since the characteristic function for the said distribution function was easily available in terms of the characteristic function for the distribution function of an individual claim, the committee chose to base the numerical calculations on the C-method by H. Bohman (Bohman [5]). The calculation of the ruin probability for a finite or infinite period was not considered by the committee.