Abstract
Earthquake insurance can be a useful tool to build more sustainable societies and disaster-resilient communities. However, the coverage is not common in many countries. This article aims to contribute to the literature through an empirical analysis of the online interest in earthquake insurance through Google Trends. The proposed methodology implies to move from a top-down conceptual approach to a bottom-up/data-enabled one. It allows us to explore potential triggers and dynamic patterns of online interest in earthquake insurance at daily time-scale through the lens of Big Data. In order to validate the methodology, the article considers Italy as a test area. For this country, where the coverage rate is low, we fuse multiple databases to create 16-year daily time series of public search activities about the insurance in Italy and analyse it with other data sources. As a result, the peak analysis shows a connection with the occurrences of large domestic earthquakes, overseas earthquakes, and policy decisions, which create time windows of opportunities for insurers and policymakers to boost the public’s motivation towards the coverages. The research outcomes suggest that the data-enabled approach can additionally be applied in other countries where the coverage rate is low and stakeholders are facing the challenge to strive against earthquake under-insurance.
Highlights
Natural hazards can cause serious damages in communities so posing serious challenges in terms of policy choices
What’s more the issue of under-insurance is addressed by international institutions which at the same time underline the role of disaster insurance: “[...] Supporting comprehensive and affordable insurance coverage of disaster risks across economies with varying levels of insurance market development remain a challenge in many economies [...]” (OECD, 2015, p. 11)
From the wDGT data, firstly comparable tendency can be observed for “terremoto” and “assicurazione terremoto” so as one can infer that the peaks of interest for insurance are linked to interest in earthquake that in turn rise significantly when the territory is shaken by earthquakes
Summary
Natural hazards can cause serious damages in communities so posing serious challenges in terms of policy choices. Jointly to the awareness of unpredictable features of earthquakes (Kagan, 2006), to focus on preparedness, including mitigation actions and recovery tools to compensate for earthquake damages (Nigg, 2000; Dowrick, 2003; Spittal et al, 2008; Moon et al, 2019; Seko, 2019). One of these tools is the insurance and the literature on disasters highlights the role played by coverages in mitigating disaster risk (Kunreuther, 2000). What’s more the issue of under-insurance is addressed by international institutions which at the same time underline the role of disaster insurance: “[...] Supporting comprehensive and affordable insurance coverage of disaster risks across economies with varying levels of insurance market development remain a challenge in many economies [...]” (OECD, 2015, p. 11)
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