Kili C. Wang

Can Vehicle Maintenance Records Predict Automobile Accidents

This article proposes that vehicle maintenance records can provide useful information for predicting the probability that an owner will have an automobile accident. To test the hypothesis, we use a unique data set that is merged from an insurance company and a vehicle manufacturer in Taiwan. We find weak evidence to support our hypothesis. Among all the proxies for proper maintenance, we indicate that proper maintenance defined by the recommended kilometers is significantly negatively correlated with the loss probability in compulsory automobile liability insurance. The average loss probability decreases by 0.23 percent when the insured vehicle is properly maintained according to the recommended number of kilometers in the previous years, whereas the average loss probability for the overall sample is 0.49 percent. We further find that proper maintenance is insignificantly correlated with loss severity.

Does Opportunistic Fraud in Automobile Theft Insurance Fluctuate with the Business Cycle

We analyze the empirical relationship between opportunistic fraud and business cycle. We find that residual opportunistic fraud exists both in the contract with replacement cost endorsement and the contract with no-deductible endorsement in the Taiwan automobile theft insurance market. These results are consistent with previous literature on the relationship between fraud activity and insurance contracting. We also show that the severity of opportunistic fraud fluctuates in the opposite direction to the business cycle. Opportunistic fraud is stimulated during periods of recession and mitigated during periods of expansion.

ARE GREEN CAR DRIVERS FRIENDLY DRIVERS? A STUDY OF TAIWAN'S AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE MARKET

By integrating claims data from Taiwans compulsory liability insurance with a unique data set on driving mileage records for each car, this article examines whether green car drivers have lower accident risk. We find that after controlling for the mileage driven per car, the traffic accident risk of green car drivers is significantly lower. Our empirical evidence also confirms that green car drivers are, on average, high‐mileage drivers. Moreover, driving more results in a higher accident probability for green car drivers despite their being lower‐risk drivers. The policy implications are discussed.