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Insurer commitment and dynamic pricing pattern

Author

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  • Ruo Jia

    (Peking University)

  • Zenan Wu

    (Peking University)

Abstract

A central issue in dynamic contracting is the type of inter-temporal pricing pattern. Some insurance products exhibit a highballing (front-loaded) pattern and others a lowballing (back-loaded) pattern, while still others are flat. We develop a unified competitive dynamic insurance model with asymmetric learning to investigate the impact of insurer commitment on the equilibrium inter-temporal pricing pattern. The model predicts that the equilibrium contract exhibits highballing under one-sided commitment and lowballing under no commitment. We then use a unique empirical setting of two products from one insurer, eliminating heterogeneity in firm, market, time horizon, and learning environment, to isolate the role of insurer commitment in determining the pricing pattern. Consistent with our theoretical predictions, we find that (i) the dynamic contracts exhibit a highballing pattern in loaner’s personal accident insurance, a one-sided commitment scenario, and (ii) a lowballing pattern in group critical illness insurance, a no-commitment scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruo Jia & Zenan Wu, 2019. "Insurer commitment and dynamic pricing pattern," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 44(1), pages 87-135, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:genrir:v:44:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s10713-018-0036-9
    DOI: 10.1057/s10713-018-0036-9
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    Cited by:

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    2. Martin Eling & Ruo Jia & Philipp Schaper, 2022. "The magic triangle: growth, profitability and safety in the insurance industry," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(2), pages 321-348, April.
    3. Martin Eling & Ruo Jia & Jieyu Lin & Casey Rothschild, 2022. "Technology heterogeneity and market structure," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(2), pages 427-448, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dynamic contract; Commitment; Asymmetric learning; Information asymmetry; Inter-temporal pricing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies

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