In many jurisdictions, insurance companies are prohibited from discriminating based on certain policyholder characteristics. Exclusion of prohibited variables from models prevents direct discrimination, but fails to address proxy discrimination, a phenomenon especially prevalent when powerful predictive algorithms are fed with an abundance of acceptable covariates. The lack of formal definition for key fairness concepts, in particular indirect discrimination, hinders effective fairness assessment. We review causal inference notions and introduce a causal graph tailored for fairness in insurance. Exploiting these, we discuss potential sources of bias, formally define direct and indirect discrimination, and study the theoretical properties of fairness methodologies. A novel categorization of fair methodologies into five families (best-estimate, unaware, aware, hyperaware, and corrective) is constructed based on their expected fairness properties. A comprehensive pedagogical example illustrates the implications of our findings: the interplay between our fair score families, group fairness criteria, and discrimination.
Insurance markets are important for managing risk and promoting economic stability, since they play a key role in mitigating financial losses from unpredictable events such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, and health crises. However, these markets often face challenges, including market failures, information asymmetries, and correlated risks that can destabilize private insurers. In response, governments frequently intervene in insurance markets, either by providing insurance directly or by acting as a reinsurer of last resort. The interaction between government and private sector provision of insurance raises interesting and important questions about the appropriate role of each player in ensuring market efficiency and protecting individuals and businesses from catastrophic risks.
As editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance, I am sharing this call for papers, on the Role of Government vs. Private Sector Provision of Insurance,
We recently started a joint research initiative, funded by the AXA Research Fund, to work on unusual data for insurance
Insurers sometimes lack information at the time of claim submission, such as the structure of a building, the presence of health risks common to a group of people, or the spatial diffusion of a pandemic. Unusual data, such as satellite images, personal network connections, and tweets can be used to populate this information gap. In this joint research initiative, we will use images, network data, and texts for risk analysis from an actuarial perspective. Specifically, the project will explore how using unusual data can contribute to smoother claims assessment and reduced data quality risk, allowing for better risk selection and pricing. The project will look at three types of unusual data: pictures/satellite images, network data, and text data.
More information will be shared via a dedicated website (https://jridata.github.io/), even if I will also mention interesting papers, conferences and open-source codes on this blog….
"sendo l'intento mio scrivere cosa utile a chi la intende…"