IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jlawec/doi10.1086-705119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impacts of Telematics on Competition and Consumer Behavior in Insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Imke Reimers
  • Benjamin R. Shiller

Abstract

Recent technological innovations allow insurance providers to closely monitor and collect detailed data on their customers’ behaviors. Such innovations offer potential benefits by mitigating moral-hazard problems but may provide the incumbent with a lasting first-mover advantage, which may harm consumers. We investigate these outcomes in the context of pay-how-you-drive (PHYD) auto insurance, which offers tailored discounts to drivers monitored by telematics devices. We exploit the staggered entry of PHYD insurance across states and insurers in a difference-in-differences framework. While innovating firms experience initial profit increases, the profits are eroded by entry, which suggests that this innovation does not raise novel antitrust concerns. Furthermore, we find a meaningful impact of PHYD programs on fatal car accidents. Our findings are consistent with impacts implied by canonical theoretical models.

Suggested Citation

  • Imke Reimers & Benjamin R. Shiller, 2019. "The Impacts of Telematics on Competition and Consumer Behavior in Insurance," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(4), pages 613-632.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/705119
    DOI: 10.1086/705119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/705119
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/705119
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/705119?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Bergemann & Marco Ottaviani, 2021. "Information Markets and Nonmarkets," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2296, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    2. Benjamin Reed Shiller, 2020. "Approximating Purchase Propensities And Reservation Prices From Broad Consumer Tracking," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(2), pages 847-870, May.
    3. David A. Cather, 2020. "Reconsidering insurance discrimination and adverse selection in an era of data analytics," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(3), pages 426-456, July.
    4. Benjamin R. Shiller, 2022. "Discreet Personalized Pricing," CESifo Working Paper Series 10025, CESifo.
    5. Meng Liu & Erik Brynjolfsson & Jason Dowlatabadi, 2021. "Do Digital Platforms Reduce Moral Hazard? The Case of Uber and Taxis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4665-4685, August.
    6. Siqi Liu & Bhoomija Ranjan & Benjamin Reed Shiller, 2020. "Are Coarse Ratings Fine? Applications to Crashworthiness Ratings," Working Papers 132, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    7. Yingda Lu & Youwei Wang & Yuxin Chen & Yun Xiong, 2023. "The role of data‐based intelligence and experience on time efficiency of taxi drivers: An empirical investigation using large‐scale sensor data," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(11), pages 3665-3682, November.
    8. Nemanja Milanović & Miloš Milosavljević & Slađana Benković & Dušan Starčević & Željko Spasenić, 2020. "An Acceptance Approach for Novel Technologies in Car Insurance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Christian Peukert & Imke Reimers, 2022. "Digitization, Prediction, and Market Efficiency: Evidence from Book Publishing Deals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6907-6924, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:doi:10.1086/705119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JLE .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.