The relationships between vehicle characteristics and automobile accidents

In this study, the relationships between vehicle characteristics and automobile accidents are examined based on physical damage insurance claims data from a major property insurance company in Taiwan. For the whole sample, we find that the car characteristics index (an estimate for the replacement cost associated with claims) is negatively correlated with the claim probability and positively correlated with claim severity. New cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) (compared with Sedans) are associated with higher claim probability. However, SUVs (compared with Sedans) are associated with lower claim severity. Small (compared with large) vehicles are associated with lower claim probability and lower claim severity. Compared with the imported cars from Germany, policyholders with the imported cars from Japan or the US are more likely to file a claim but to have lower claim severity. On subgroup analyses, the relationship between car characteristics index and claim probability is positive for domestic cars and negative for imported cars, implying that imported car policies subsidize domestic car policies. We also find the impacts of vehicle characteristics on claim probability and claim severity differ for domestic cars and imported cars in subsamples. Our empirical evidence provides important implications for premium pricing in the automobile physical damage insurance industry.