Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:09:28.701Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Judging Insurance Antidiscrimination Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2019

Yun-chien Chang
Affiliation:
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Get access

Summary

Insurance companies use credit score to predict auto insurance risk. The theory being that people who are irresponsible in handling their finance, might also be irresponsible drivers. As a result, in states which ban discrimination based on credit score one would expect to see more fatal car accidents. In this study we seek to estimate the effect of introducing laws that prohibit credit score discrimination on the number of traffic fatalities, taking a standard differences-in-differences approach and using data on traffic fatalities from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). We find that prohibiting credit score discrimination is likely to not have an impact on insureds' primary behavior. Specifically, we find that in the first few years after the introduction of a law prohibiting credit score discrimination, there is a statistically insignificant increase in the number of traffic fatalities. Because the increase is not statistically significant we interpret the results as suggestive only.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arizona Governing Committee v. Norris. 1983. 463 U.S. 1073.Google Scholar
Aseervatham, Vijay, Lex, Christoph, and Spindler, Martin. 2014. How Do Unisex Rating Regulations Affect Gender Differences in Insurance Premiums? (November 7). Munich Risk and Insurance Center Working Paper 16. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2183181 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2183181 (accessed July 19, 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avraham, Ronen. 2017. Discrimination and Insurance. Pp. 335–47 in The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Discrimination, edited by Lippert-Rasmussen, Kasper. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avraham, Ronen, Logue, Kyle. D., and Schwarcz, Daniel. 2014. The Anatomy of Insurance Anti-discrimination Laws. Southern California Law Review 87: 195274.Google Scholar
Avraham, Ronen, Logue, Kyle D., and Schwarcz, Daniel. 2015. Towards a Universal Framework for Insurance Anti-discrimination Laws. Connecticut Insurance Law Journal 21: 152.Google Scholar
Brockett, P. L. and Golden, L. L. 2007. Biological and Psychobehavioral Correlates of Credit Scores and Automobile Insurance Losses: Toward an Explication of Why Credit Scoring Works. Journal of Risk and Insurance 74(1): 2363.Google Scholar
Clifford, Robert and Daniel, Shoag. 2016. No More Credit Score- Employer Credit Check Bans and Signal Substitution. http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shoag/files/clifford_and_shoag_2016.pdf?m=1454092507 (accessed July 9, 2019).Google Scholar
Cohen, Alma, and Einav, Liran. 2003. The Effect of Mandatory Seat Belt Laws on Driving Behavior and Traffic Fatalities. Review of Economics and Statistics 85: 828–43.Google Scholar
Cohen, Alma, and Dehejia, Rajeec. 2004. The Effects of Automobile Insurance and Accident Liability Laws on Traffic Fatalities. Journal of Law and Economics 47: 357–93.Google Scholar
Cohen, Alma, and Siegelman, Peter. 2010. Testing for Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets. Journal of Risk and Insurance 77(1): 3984.Google Scholar
Cutler, D. M., and Reber, S. J.. 1998. Paying for Health Insurance: The Trade‐Off between Competition and Adverse Selection. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113: 433–66.Google Scholar
Cutler, D. M., and Zeckhauser, A. A. 2000. The Anatomy of Health Insurance, Pp. 563643, in: Handbook of Health Economics, Vol. 1, Ch. 11, edited by Culyer, Anthony J. and Newhous, Joseph P.. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Edlin, Aaron. 1999. Per-Mile Premiums for Auto Insurance. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 6934.Google Scholar
Edlin, Aaron. S., and Karaca‐Mandic, , and Pinar, . 2006. The Accident Externality from Driving. Journal of Political Economy 114(5): 931–55.Google Scholar
Hellman, D. 2003. What Makes Genetic Discrimination Exception? American Journal of Law and Medicine 29: 77116.Google Scholar
Hellman, D. 2008. When Is Discrimination Wrong? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kellison, J. B., Brockett, P., Shin, S. H., and Li, S.. 2003. A Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between Credit History and Insurance Losses. Bureau of Business Research. Austin: The University of Texas.Google Scholar
Levitt, Steven D., and Porter, Jack. 2001. How Dangerous Are Drinking Drivers. Journal of Political Economy 109: 1198–237.Google Scholar
Levitt, Steven D., and Porter, Jack. 1999. Sample Selection in the Estimation of Air Bag and Seat Belt Effectiveness. NBER Working Paper No. 7210.Google Scholar
Lippert-Rasmussen, K. 2013. Born Free and Equal? Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moreau, S. 2010. What Is Discrimination? Philosophy and Public Affairs 38(2): 143–79.Google Scholar
Oxera. 2011. The Impact of a Ban on the Use of Gender in Insurance. www.oxera.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Oxera-report-on-gender-in-insurance-1.pdf (accessed July 19, 2019).Google Scholar
Peltzman, Sam. 1975. The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation. Journal of Political Economy 83: 667725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Issi, Romem, and Ity, Shurtz. 2015. The Accident Externality of Traffic Density: Evidence from Observance of the Jewish Sabbath in Israel. Unpublished Revision requested by the Journal of Urban Economics.Google Scholar
Schauer, F. 2003. Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Frank, Sloan A., Reilly, B. A., and Schenzler, C.M.. 1994. Tort Liability versus Other Approaches for Deterring Careless Driving. International Review of Law and Economics 14: 5372.Google Scholar
Vickery, William. 1968. Automobile Accidents, Tort Law, Externalities, and Insurance: An Economist’s Critique. Law and Contemporary Problems 33: 464–87.Google Scholar
White, M. J. 1989. An Empirical Test of the Comparative and Contributory Negligence Rules in Accident Law. Rand Journal of Economics 20: 308–30.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×