We conduct an audit of pricing algorithms employed by companies in the Italian car insurance industry, primarily by gathering quotes through a popular comparison website. While acknowledging the complexity of the industry, we find evidence of several problematic practices. We show that birthplace and gender have a direct and sizeable impact on the prices quoted to drivers, despite national and international regulations against their use. Birthplace, in particular, is used quite frequently to the disadvantage of foreign-born drivers and drivers born in certain Italian cities. In extreme cases, a driver born in Laos may be charged 1,000 euros more than a driver born in Milan, all else being equal. For a subset of our sample, we collect quotes directly on a company website, where the direct influence of gender and birthplace is confirmed. Finally, we find that drivers with riskier profiles tend to see fewer quotes in the aggregator result pages, substantiating concerns of differential treatment raised in the past by Italian insurance regulators.
翻译:我们主要通过大众比较网站收集报价,对意大利汽车保险业公司采用的定价算法进行审计。我们承认该行业的复杂性,但发现有好几种问题做法的证据。我们表明,尽管国家和国际条例禁止使用该行业,但出生地和性别对司机报价具有直接和相当大的影响。特别是,出生地经常被用来对在意大利某些城市出生的外国出生的司机和司机不利。在极端情况下,在老挝出生的司机可能收取比在米兰出生的司机多1 000欧元的费用,而所有其他的司机都是平等的。我们从一个公司网站上直接收集报价,其中确认了性别和出生地的直接影响。最后,我们发现,具有风险特征的司机往往在聚合器结果页上看到较少的报价,这证实了意大利保险监管机构过去提出的差别待遇问题。