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Issue: May 2022 | Life/Health North America
Stamford, CT, May 5, 2022 … Suffolk University professors are bringing their expertise in behavioral economics to Gen Re through a unique business relationship designed to benefit the reinsurer’s clients in the areas of underwriting, marketing, client engagement, customer service and more.
Behavioral economics draws from the fields of psychology and economics to better understand human behavior and decision-making when they deviate from strict rationality.
Over the past several years, Gen Re has conducted and shared results of several in‑house behavioral economics studies focusing on key areas of interest to insurers. This research helped Gen Re’s reinsurance clients improve disclosure on insurance applications and personal history interviews, as well as explore other areas of interest such as policyholder communication, financial planning presentations, marketing materials and website design. Expanding upon the Gen Re Research team’s existing efforts, the relationship with Suffolk University will provide:
“Traditional economics is all about rational individuals, how they respond to prices, etc.,” explains Jonathan Haughton, professor of Economics at Suffolk University in Boston. “However, there are all sorts of cases where we don’t behave quite so rationally.”
Haughton and Suffolk Assistant Professor Lawrence De Geest both teach in the field of behavioral economics and are sharing their knowledge with Gen Re’s Research team. De Geest’s research examines the emergence of social norms and the effect of information on decision‑making.
“All kinds of psychological factors outside of traditional economics play into people’s decision-making,” Haughton says. “For example, when it comes to health and medical disclosure, the way a question is framed in a questionnaire can make a big difference to what people choose to disclose. Loss aversion is another psychological factor that can affect economic decision-making. People are very averse to losing things to which they have become attached, so instead of saying, ‘Save $50 a month,’ you might say ‘Stop losing $50 a month. Don’t lose your ability to support your household.’”
Keith Brown, Senior Vice President and Head of Individual Life at Gen Re, says it’s important for insurers to pay attention to these important behavioral factors: “At a time of rapidly evolving underwriting approaches, uncertainty about future morbidity and mortality improvement, and increased insurer focus on client engagement, the behavioral economics training is being made available to Gen Re clients at an important industry inflection point.”
Suffolk University, located in the heart of downtown Boston, has a long history of partnering with industry to share relevant academic and business knowledge, research, and expertise.
“I am a big believer in faculty doing work with business, government and the non-profit sector outside of the academy,” Haughton says. “I think in the right proportion, it hugely benefits teaching and research.”
For more information on Gen Re’s Behavioral Economics research, visit our webpage: www.genre.com/behavioraleconomics.
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Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, is one of the leading Life/Health and Property/Casualty reinsurers in the world. Our North American Life/Health reinsurance company, General Re Life Corporation, has superior financial strength ratings among Life and Health reinsurers. Gen Re delivers customized reinsurance programs and risk management solutions for the Life, Medicare Supplement, Critical Illness and Individual Disability Income markets. Through our research, we also offer valuable information and insights.
Suffolk University, located in historic downtown Boston, with an international campus in Madrid, provides students with experiential and transformational learning opportunities that begin in the center of Boston, reach across the globe and lead to extraordinary outcomes for graduates. The University is driven by the power of education, inclusion and engagement to change lives and positively impact communities. Suffolk University offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in its College of Arts & Sciences, Sawyer Business School, and Law School.
Suffolk University
Greg Gatlin
Vice President of Communications
Tel. +1 617 435 3634
Jonathan Haughton is Professor of Economics at Suffolk University. He has published over 50 articles in refereed journals, on topics spanning taxation, demography, energy, the measurement and analysis of poverty, and entrepreneurship. He is currently working on a book on Causal Business Analytics. A prize-winning teacher, he has taught, worked, or made presentations in over 30 countries. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1983 and is a CFA® charterholder.
Lawrence De Geest is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Suffolk University and a Senior Data Scientist at the National Basketball Association. His current research examines the emergence of social norms and the effect of information on decision-making. Learn more about his teaching and research at https://lrdegeest.github.io/.
