Insurance Claim Operations: The Role of Economic Incentives
41 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2009 Last revised: 25 Feb 2010
Date Written: September 14, 2009
Abstract
We develop a theory of insurance claim settlement whose structure embodies an insurer’s capacity decision and negotiation between the insurer and claimant in an asymmetrically informed environment. We offer a solution to an insurer’s choice of upfront claim settlement amount under a plausible set of assumptions. Implications from theory are tested with a large sample of liability insurance claims collected over two years in the state of Texas and we find that insurer’s deployment of more capacity to handle a claim and longer settlement times occur for claims with more uncertainty. The empirical results also reveal factors relevant to insurer’s operational choices. Descriptive features of a claim, the age of the claimant and attorney representation on the plaintiff’s side are important determinants of the final settlement amount.
Keywords: insurance, claims, economic incentives, capacity
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