Findings from East Carolina University Broaden Understanding of Risk Management (How Cellphone Bans Affect Automobile Insurance Markets)

Health Policy and Law Daily

2019 AUG 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- New research on Risk Management is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Greenville, United States, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “In this article, we examine the effect of laws prohibiting the hand-held use of a cellphone while driving on the automobile insurance market. Our research is motivated by prior studies that present evidence that the enactment of such laws alters drivers’ behaviors in ways that reduce the risk of automobile accidents.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from East Carolina University, “We posit that that, by extension, these laws should also lead to reductions in the amount of losses paid by private passenger automobile physical damage insurers. Our analysis indicates that the enactment of a ban on the hand-held use of a cellphone while driving reduces the incurred losses and incurred loss ratios of automobile insurers by approximately 3 percent, suggesting that these bans have important economic consequences not previously documented in the literature. Additional analysis suggests that hand-held cellphone bans eventually lead to incremental reductions in premiums, but we do not observe these reductions in premiums until a couple of years following the enactment of a ban.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Our analysis of automobile insurance losses also represents a departure from most prior studies of cellphone bans and therefore contributes to the ongoing debate in the public health literature regarding the extent to which hand-held cellphone bans have implications for traffic safety.”

For more information on this research see: How Cellphone Bans Affect Automobile Insurance Markets. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2019;86(3):567-593. Journal of Risk and Insurance can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of Risk and Insurance - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6975)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.B. Karl, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/jori.12224. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.