Research Publications

Public Attitude Monitor 1995

Topics explored in this survey include consumer auto and home insurance shopping behavior, consumer willingness to provide insurers with information on race, ethnicity and income for regulatory purposes, and awareness of factors affecting the cost of settling automobile insurance claims. This survey also examines recent trends in public attitude towards insurance fraud and views on disaster relief by geographic region. Public opinion regarding roadway safety issues, including drinking and driving, acceptability of speeding, and reducing accidents among teenage drivers and elderly drivers, also is explored in this survey.

Motivating Safety in the Workplace

This survey of approximately 3,200 small and medium businesses examines the different measures employers take to prevent workplace injury and illness. Among other topics, the report documents the measures that surveyed business owners feel are most effective in promoting safety, what motivates them to implement the measures, and what prevents them from taking additional preventative action.

Trends in Auto Injury Claims, Special State Report for Pennsylvania- Free of Charge

Coastal Exposure and Community Protection Hurricane Andrew's Legacy

This study uses data from coastal counties in the 18 states along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to document population and insured exposure increases from 1980 through 1993. The devastation of Hurricane Andrew is analyzed to show the strengths and weaknesses of current building code practices and enforcement, and to make recommendations for improvement. Computer models are presented which estimate potential losses from future hurricanes. Cost: $25 in the U.S. and $40 elsewhere, postpaid.

Auto Injuries: Claiming Behavior and Its Impact of Insurance Costs

This book reports results of a countrywide survey of nearly 62,000 auto injury claims paid by 61 major auto insurers in 1992. It discusses characteristics of the accidents and of those injured, trends in losses incurred and payments received, incidence of attorney involvement and its effect on claim costs, and variations by city and state in these and other factors. Comparisons are made between the 1992 data and similar studies conducted in 1987 and 1977. Also available: 1987 closed claim and consumer panel study, Compensation for Automobile Injuries in the United States, March 1989, 187 pages; and 1977 closed claim study, Automobile Injuries and Their Compensation in the United States, March 1979, 254 pages plus 409 pages of tables in Vol. II.

Paying for Auto Injuries

This study examines the auto injury reimbursement process from the claimant's perspective, providing information on 5,503 recent auto injury victims. This consumer panel survey, a comprehensive update of similar IRC studies conducted in 1977 and 1986, reveals current patterns in the economic cost of injuries, types of medical providers used, different sources of reimbursement, and attorney involvement in injury claims. The study also reports on consumer satisfaction with settlement amounts as it relates to the other variations in claim circumstances.

Public Attitude Monitor 1993

This survey explores consumer expectations from auto insurers, and investigates when and why people hire lawyers for auto claims. The survey also examines attitudes regarding insurance fraud, affordability of auto insurance, insurance company access to motor vehicle records, employee perceptions of safety in the workplace, managed health care in auto insurance and workers' compensation, and responsibility for adequate homeowner's insurance.

Public Attitude Monitor 1992

This survey explores public attitudes on insurance fraud in workers' compensation and disability claims, affordability of auto insurance, effects of attorney advertising, traffic safety issues, earthquake risk, and other insurance topics.

Fighting Fraud in the Insurance Industry

Estimated Cost of Compliance with 1991 Building Code Seismic Requirements

This report prepared by the National Association of Home Builders for IRC shows that builders can construct homes providing for life safety in earthquakes at an added cost of less than 1% of the purchase price of a new home.