What drives drivers? Switching, learning, and the impact of claims in car insurance

People rarely change their service provider, and they generally stick instead with the incumbent. This inertia is usually interpreted as market friction that is mainly due to search or switching costs, or is explained by learning about an intangible good. The actual triggers for learning are less studied, especially whether the learners’ own behavior triggers the learning. We analyze field data on choices made about car insurance renewal, in which all the features offered and chosen, including claims details, are known. We follow an expected utility approach, and by controlling for individual factors we find that the decision to switch insurers is mainly driven by the direct monetary gains that result from changes within choice sets rather than changes in the default good. The learning effects are present, and, surprisingly, there is a difference in consumer behavior. Consumers at fault for a claim tend to switch significantly less than those who suffered a third-party-induced claim or made a claim with other causes.