> You don't want an accident, but you do want to read that text you just got, and you're more likely to wait until you're stationary if an at fault accident could ruin you instead of just raising your insurance premiums.
Literally no one ever has thought “self, I’m going to look at this text while I drive because I’m insured!” In the real world they’re doing it because they’re addicted and not because of some rational calculus. That might make a good scenario for a comedic skit though.
I don’t feel like looking it up on my phone, but I’d bet at worse than even odds that drunk drivers are in fact less likely to be insured, when the moral hazard theory would predict they’re more likely to be.
> Isn't suicide an exception to nearly all life insurance polices, among other reasons to remove that very incentive?
The answer is either not really or even an outright no. Individual policies usually have a 1-2 year no suicides clause and after that they pay. Group policies like employer offered ones usually have no wait period and will just pay out.
> Literally no one ever has thought “self, I’m going to look at this text while I drive because I’m insured!”
It works the other way. If you have no insurance, you think, "self, I'm not going to look at this text while I drive because I'm not insured, and if I hit someone it could cause me to lose my house."
Same reason undocumented immigrants follow the speed limit.
> I don’t feel like looking it up on my phone, but I’d bet at worse than even odds that drunk drivers are in fact less likely to be insured, when the moral hazard theory would predict they’re more likely to be.
There are obvious reasons for this to be the case independently. People with a DUI record are more likely to drive drunk, but people with a DUI record may not be able to get or afford insurance. Drunk driving and not having insurance might both be correlated with poverty. Things like that. Is it your argument that not having insurance causes you to be less likely to drive drunk, all else equal?
> The answer is either not really or even an outright no. Individual policies usually have a 1-2 year no suicides clause and after that they pay. Group policies like employer offered ones usually have no wait period and will just pay out.
But the 1-2 year clause is there specifically because of the moral hazard. Otherwise not only would anyone planning to commit suicide have the incentive to take out life insurance first, anyone who needed a quick big payout for their loved ones would have the incentive to take out a policy and then commit suicide.
And the general trend in the opposite direction is caused by both the removal of that incentive, and the same kind of confounders as in the DUI case. People with stable employer-provided insurance coverage or with the financial stability to afford premiums for >2 years are the sort of people less likely to take their own lives.
Literally no one ever has thought “self, I’m going to look at this text while I drive because I’m insured!” In the real world they’re doing it because they’re addicted and not because of some rational calculus. That might make a good scenario for a comedic skit though.
I don’t feel like looking it up on my phone, but I’d bet at worse than even odds that drunk drivers are in fact less likely to be insured, when the moral hazard theory would predict they’re more likely to be.
> Isn't suicide an exception to nearly all life insurance polices, among other reasons to remove that very incentive?
The answer is either not really or even an outright no. Individual policies usually have a 1-2 year no suicides clause and after that they pay. Group policies like employer offered ones usually have no wait period and will just pay out.