Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry
Author(s): Howard C. Kunreuther (Author), Mark V. Pauly (Author), Stacey McMorrow (Author)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: January 28, 2013
Edition: Illustrated
Language: English
Print length: 342 pages
ISBN-10: 0521845726
ISBN-13: 9780521845724
Book Description
Insurance is an extraordinarily useful tool to manage risk. When it works as intended, it provides financial protection to individuals and a profitable business model for insurance firms and their investors. But it is broadly misunderstood by consumers, regulators, and insurance executives. This book looks at the behavior of individuals at risk, insurance industry decision makers, and policy makers at the local, state, and federal level involved in the selling, buying, and regulating of insurance. It compares their actions to those predicted by benchmark models of choice derived from classical economic theory. When actual choices stray from predictions, the behavior is considered to be anomalous. With considerable sums of money at stake, both in consumer premiums and insurance company payouts, it is important to understand the reasons for anomalous behavior. Howard Kunreuther, Mark Pauly, and Stacey McMorrow examine these anomalies through the lens of behavioral economics, which takes into account emotions, biases, and simplified decision rules. The authors then consider if and how such behavioral anomalies could be modified to improve individual and social welfare. This book is neither a defense of the insurance industry nor an attack on it. Neither is it a consumer guide to purchasing insurance, although the authors believe that consumers will benefit from the insights it contains. Rather, this book describes situations in which both public policy and the insurance industry’s collective posture need to change. This may require incentives, rules, and institutions to help reduce both inefficient and anomalous behavior, thereby encouraging behavior that will improve individual and social welfare.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“For too many people insurance is a mystery not worth solving. The authors of Insurance and Behavioral Economics shed valuable light on insurance products and providers in an insightful examination for the benefit of consumers, analysts, and students of the business. Even the industry would be wise to study the authors’ research, conclusions, and recommendations.” Franklin Nutter, President, Reinsurance Association of America
“A challenging and surprisingly engaging analysis of how insurance markets really function. You don’t need to agree with all the analyses or recommendations – and I don’t – to recognize that this book is going to be widely read and broadly influential among insurers and regulators.” Leigh Ann Pusey, President and CEO, American Insurance Association
“This book presents a brilliant analysis of the insurance industry as it exists today and will evolve tomorrow. Insurance is fundamental to everything we do: we can see in this book how we can make much better use of it, to improve all of our lives.” Robert Shiller, Yale University
“Insurance is a vital tool for managing risk, but it is misunderstood by consumers, regulators, and industry executives in ways that greatly reduce its effectiveness. In this superb book, Kunreuther, Pauly, and McMorrow employ insights from behavioral economics to clarify these misunderstandings and point the way toward more rational use of insurance to enhance individual and societal welfare.” Paul Slovic, University of Oregon and author of The Feeling of Risk
“Regulators and policy makers have long known that consumers often make seemingly irrational choices when it comes to insurance. Drawing on behavioral economics, the authors provide a framework to understand insurance market anomalies – in both demand and supply – and to evaluate alternative policy prescriptions. Their work is a significant contribution to the discussion on how to best structure insurance regulation to the benefit of consumers and society.” Terri M. Vaughan, Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Insurance Commissioners
“Psychologically, it’s hard for most of us to take the initiative on long-term, ill-defined risks. Three scholars – Howard C. Kunreuther and Mark V. Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania and Stacey McMorrow of the Urban Institute – show this in their book. But they argue that if we’re aware of them, these psychological impediments can be reduced, and they urge the innovation of long-term risk management contracts that address the problem of climate change.” The New York Times
Book Description
This book examines the behavior of individuals at risk and insurance industry policy makers involved in selling, buying and regulation.
About the Author
Howard Kunreuther is the James G. Dinan Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. He has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low-probability, high-consequence events. Dr Kunreuther is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Insurance and Asset Management for 2011–12 and in 2009–10 served as co-chair of the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Leadership and Innovation for Reducing Risks from Natural Disasters. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis, which honored him with a Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001. Dr Kunreuther also received the 2015 Shin Research Excellence Award from the Geneva Association and the International Insurance Society (IIS), in recognition of his work on the role of public-private partnerships in mitigating and managing risks.
Mark Pauly is the Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. One of the leading health economists of the United States, he is a former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission and is a co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics and an associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. Professor Pauly has served on Institute of Medicine panels on public accountability for health insurers under Medicare and on improving the financing of vaccines. He is a former member of the advisory committee to the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the Medicare Technical Advisory Panel.
Stacey McMorrow is a research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC. She is currently leading a study of the effects of increased federal funding for community health centers on access to care for low-income individuals and has analyzed the potential impacts of the Affordable Care Act on small employers, individuals and families. Dr McMorrow’s PhD dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania explored the market-level effects of health insurance, specifically examining the impact of a large uninsured population on the availability of specialized hospital services as well as on utilization and outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries.
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