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UNDERSTANDING THE ADVICE OF COMMISSIONS-MOTIVATED AGENTS
We conduct a series of field experiments to evaluate the quality of advice provided by life insurance agents in India. Agents overwhelmingly recommend unsuitable, strictly dominated products that provide high commissions to the agent. Agents cater to the beliefs of uninformed consumers, even when those beliefs are wrong. We also find that agents appear to focus on maximizing the amount of premiums (and therefore their commissions) that customers pay, as opposed to focusing on how much insurance coverage customers need. A natural experiment requiring disclosure of commissions for a specific product results in agents recommending alternative products with high commissions but no disclosure requirement. A follow-up agent survey sheds light on the extent to which poor advice reflects both the commission incentives and agents’ limited product knowledge.
Journal Article
Collusion Between Retailers and Customers: The Case of Insurance Fraud in Taiwan
This study analyzes how the insurance distribution channel can affect insurance fraud. It uses econometric models that confirm the existence of claim manipulation as a form of insurance fraud, whereby policyholders circumvent the bonus–malus system and reduce the actual burden of insurance deductibles. The econometric approach is based on joint regression models for the probability that a claim is manipulated on one hand, and the probability that the policyholder has strong incentives to do so, on the other hand. The estimation shows that there is a significantly positive residual correlation between these regressions, which establishes the likelihood of fraudulent claim manipulation. The econometric modelling of claim cost allows us to disentangle the manipulation of claims that correspond to true losses and small false claims filed at the end of the policy year, and also to highlight the role of the insurance distribution channel in these fraud mechanisms. Using data from two Taiwanese car insurers with very different distribution channels in 2010, we compare an insurer that relies heavily on dealer-owned agents (DOAs) with another insurer that does not rely on DOAs at all. We find strong evidence of severe claim manipulation when insurance is sold through DOAs. Moreover, as the first insurer significantly reduced its reliance on the DOA channel over time, we perform a before–after comparison using data from 2010 and 2018. The results show that the claim manipulation fraud previously observed in the DOA channel decreases as the market share of this distribution channel is reduced. All these results highlight the role of automobile insurance agencies in facilitating this fraud process. The theoretical underpinnings of our analysis are provided by a claim fraud model considering collusion and audit.
Journal Article
Discerning the antecedents determining empowerment of life insurance agents: an empirical examination
The purpose of the study is to examine the determining factors which influence empowerment amongst life insurance agents in the Indian context. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted amongst 409 life insurance agents. Principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to identify and validate dimensions and antecedents of employee empowerment. Later, using multivariate multiple regression analysis, the relative importance of these factors in influencing psychological empowerment is empirically tested. The results of analysis indicate that rewards work as an important antecedent for building psychological empowerment, followed by self-efficacy and self-esteem. Even though access to information is reported as a significant antecedent, it was found to be the least important one in determining psychological empowerment. Insights generated in this paper provide guidelines in understanding critical antecedents of psychological empowerment amongst life insurance agents and also suggest implications for better managerial practice.
Journal Article
Coming up for air
Set at the beginning of the Second World War, 'Coming Up for Air' describes suburban insurance agent George Bowling's return to his birthplace, a sedate Oxfordshire village. This edition - one of George Orwell's early pre-war works - explores the historical and political context of the novel.
BOOK
Empathy as moderator of gender differences in Chinese insurance agents' business ethical sensitivity
To expand the business ethics research field, and to increase society's understanding of Chinese insurance agents' business ethics, we investigated how gender differences are related to agents' business ethical sensitivity and whether or not these relationships are moderated by empathy.
Through a regression analysis of the factors associated with the business ethical sensitivity of 417 Chinese insurance agents, we found that gender played an important role in affecting business ethical sensitivity, and empathy significantly affected business ethical sensitivity. Furthermore,
empathy had a moderating effect on the relationship between gender and business ethical sensitivity. Both men and women with strong empathy scored high on business ethical sensitivity; however, men with strong empathy had higher levels of business ethical sensitivity than did women with little
empathy. The findings add to the literature by providing insight into the mechanisms responsible for the benefits of empathy in increasing business ethical sensitivity.
Journal Article