Mobile application sales channel and insurance market: performance, information asymmetry and technology risk

The rise and ubiquity of the mobile Internet has been one of the most outstanding technological innovations of the past decade, facilitating customer-oriented digital transformation. Within the insurance value chain, digitization of the consumer interface and the resultant mobile application sales channel have been one of the more successful adaptations of a digital strategy. China's market of digital insurance distribution and the associated vibrant environment of Insurtech innovations have accumulated a rich dataset, allowing for a research agenda to better understand the microeconomic impacts and mechanisms of the mobile application sales channel in the insurance market. This understanding is not only crucial for insurance industry in decision-making on digital distribution strategy, but also generally revealing for other industries under the broad context of the digital economy. However, there exists a deficit of relevant academic studies at this time. As such, in this thesis examines how and why the adoption of the mobile application sales channel affects the sales and profits of insurance companies. This fundamental question is the first concern of insurance companies when considering a digital distribution strategy. The research in this thesis quantifies the microeconomic effects, evaluates heterogeneity effects and explores the underlying mechanisms.Chapter 1 details the sales and profits analysis frameworks which then allow for the effective research design and ability to interpret the research results. The sales analysis framework decomposes the effect of the mobile application sales channel on insurance sales into the changes of policy quantity, received premiums, insured amount choices, observed risk and price, which are addressed in Chapters 2 and 4. The profits analysis framework highlights the effects of the mobile application sales channel on information asymmetry and technology cost, which are addressed in Chapters 3 and 5.Specifically, Chapter 2 empirically assesses the effects of the mobile application sales strategy on the quantities and received premiums of sold policies through the Event Study analyses. This chapter also presents a variety of heterogeneity analyses on different demographic groups and examines proposed reasons of price adjustment and insurance access. It also disentangles previously controversial channel cannibalization. This chapter complements the insurance literature on the sales performance of digital distribution. Chapter 3 theorizes and empirically documents how digital distribution engages with information asymmetry to achieve advantageous risk screening on consumers. This chapter also investigates the effect of introducing digital distribution on underwriting profitability and explores its extensive margin and intensive margin. By demonstrating the advantageous risk screening effect and examining the associated mechanisms including channel capability and channel preference, this chapter links insurance literature, risk selection literature and digital economics literature. Chapter 4 empirically studies the inclusion of mobile insurance on the demand of low- and high-insured-amount policies. This study is also an extension of the heterogeneity analysis in terms of insured amount choices. It is found that mobile insurance is more inclusive than traditional insurance by generating greater incentives to the growth of low-insured-amount policies associated with low-income population than to that of high-insured-amount policies. By intersecting financial inclusion and digital distribution, this chapter contributes to the literature in both fields. Chapter 5 identifies the changing perception of cyber risk and associated cyber risk sources by using a novel methodology which combines Natural Language Processing methods and statistical methods. This study takes a cost perspective when it comes to the effect of the digital technology adoption on profitability, which makes the research perspectives of this thesis integrated. This chapter methodologically and insightfully innovates both the cyber risk literature and risk perception literature.The findings of this thesis generate significant implications on decision-making of the digital distribution strategy to the insurance industry, and implications on financial inequality andcyber risk to financial regulators. In the academic sense, this thesis not only fills in the gap of empirical literature on the impacts of digital distribution on insurance business performance, but also at a high level, deepens the understandings of how digital distribution improves the efficiency and affects the structure of the insurance mark.</p

The variable definition table used in this article.

The variable definition table used in this article.</p

“Shared value” that balances economic, social, and environmental values.

“Shared value” that balances economic, social, and environmental values.</p

TBAI-Catalyzed Oxidative Cross-Coupling of Phenols and 2‑Amino­acetophenones

An iodide-catalyzed oxidative cross-coupling between phenols and 2-amino­acetophenones has been developed. Using catalytic amounts of tetrabutyl­ammonium­iodide (TBAI) as an iodine-containing catalyst and aqueous solutions of <i>tert-</i>butyl hydro-peroxide (TBHP) as the stoichiometric co-oxidant, a variety of α-phenoxylated 2-amino­acetophenones could be obtained in yields of up to 92% after remarkably short reaction times (20 min). This is a very rare example for an iodide-catalyzed intermolecular cross-coupling utilizing phenols. However, this efficient methodology could be further extended toward an intramolecular variant which gives direct access to a range of dihydro-4<i>H</i>-benzo­[<i>e</i>]­[1,3]­oxazin-4-ones

Tool variable regression results.

Tool variable regression results.</p

The research framework of this article.

The research framework of this article.</p

Descriptive statistics.

Descriptive statistics.</p

Correlation coefficients.

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Sustainability reporting “greenwashing” indicator system supplemental information.

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Data_Sheet_1_The impact of grandchild care on depressive symptoms of grandparents in China: The mediating effects of generational support from children.docx

ObjectivesDespite extensive studies about the direct effect of grandchild care on caregiver depression in China, understanding of its internal influencing mechanism has been limited. After controlling for socioeconomic factors, this study investigated whether the experience of caring for grandchildren had a long-term impact on the depression levels of grandparents, either directly or indirectly through generational support from adult children.MethodsThe subjects of this study were a total of 9,219 adults over 45 who participated in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Surveys in 2015 and 2018. We adopted a lag-behind variable to examine the impact of grandchild care on depressive symptoms of grandparents. The proposed mediation model was analyzed using bootstrap modeling, and the KHB method was conducted further to examine differences in the effects of generational support.ResultsThe experience of caring for grandchildren had a significant negative correlation with the depression level of Chinese grandparents. Moreover, children's support significantly mediated the impact of parenting experience on grandparents' depression. Significantly, instrumental support mediated the effect to the greatest extent, while emotional support from children contributed the least. The intermediary effect has urban–rural heterogeneity.ConclusionThese findings indicated that grandchild care significantly inhibited the depression level of Chinese grandparents through increased intergenerational support from adult children. The implications of the study's findings were discussed.</p