| dc.description.abstract | Insurance is an intangible asset in all commodity markets but quintessential. Quite often, the general public will not take the initiative to purchase insurance products, but is recommended by insurance agents. Taiwanese nationals, based on their perception of risks, assess the need to sign insurance policies.
COVID-19 has caused over hundreds of millions of confirmed cases with more than millions of deaths across the globe. This research seeks to investigate Taiwanese national’s risk management behavior under the widespread pandemic by transferring potential losses to insurance companies. This research randomly chooses 2,401 samples from a total of 71,511 insurance cases of S Life Insurance Company underwritten through banks from January 2020 to December 2021.
Applying difference-in-difference (DID) method on insurance premiums, I analyze the risk transfer behavior of Taiwanese people before and after the level-three alert of COVID-19 in Taipei City and New Taipei City (the Greater Taipei area) and other areas. Empirical results show that insured persons who are older and earn a higher annual family income pay a higher premium, and even so for residents of the Greater Taipei area and people of higher age after the level-three alert of the pandemic. In contrast, insured persons who are female, married, have long installments, and live in the Greater Taipei area face a lower premium. I find that insurance premiums are $503.15 thousand dollars more for the Greater Taipei area than the rest of Taiwan, suggesting that even though insurance agents find it difficult to schedule a face-to-face meeting with clients under the level-three alert, nationals will increase their insurance coverage to give additional protection for themselves and their family members. Furthermore, since the COVID-19 pandemic causes more severe impact on the elderly with higher mortality rate, the general public, aside from taking all necessary preventive measures, should mitigate losses through transferring risk to insurance policies. | en_US |