Designing a Bonus-Malus system reflecting the claim size under the dependent frequency-severity model

Rosy Oh, Joseph H.T. Kim, Jae Youn Ahn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the auto insurance industry, a Bonus-Malus System (BMS) is commonly used as a posteriori risk classification mechanism to set the premium for the next contract period based on a policyholder's claim history. Even though the recent literature reports evidence of a significant dependence between frequency and severity, the current BMS practice is to use a frequency-based transition rule while ignoring severity information. Although Oh et al. [(2020). Bonus-Malus premiums under the dependent frequency-severity modeling. Scandinavian Actuarial Journal 2020(3): 172-195] claimed that the frequency-driven BMS transition rule can accommodate the dependence between frequency and severity, their proposal is only a partial solution, as the transition rule still completely ignores the claim severity and is unable to penalize large claims. In this study, we propose to use the BMS with a transition rule based on both frequency and size of claim, based on the bivariate random effect model, which conveniently allows dependence between frequency and severity. We analytically derive the optimal relativities under the proposed BMS framework and show that the proposed BMS outperforms the existing frequency-driven BMS. Later, numerical experiments are also provided using both hypothetical and actual datasets in order to assess the effect of various dependencies on the BMS risk classification and confirm our theoretical findings.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)963-987
Number of pages25
JournalProbability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences
Volume36
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

  • Bivariate random effects model
  • Bonus-Malus system
  • Dependence
  • Generalized linear model
  • Rate making

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