Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Importance And Development Of Catastrophe Models, Kevin Schwall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Importance and Development of Catastrophe Models

I thought this was a very interesting project to work on. I was intrigued by catastrophe models and how the insurance industry will be able to use them to better predict natural disasters moving forward. From my research, I found that these models are quite effective, and will only improve as time goes on. As more data is gathered and input into the models, the quality of output will only improve, helping insurers and all of us, in the form of more accurate insurance rates. I was surprised to see just how devastating …

Decision Trees: Predicting Future Losses For Insurance Data, Amanda Lahrmann

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Big data is a term that has come to the spotlight for companies within recent years. Data analysis and business intelligence have become prominent sectors of companies and agencies. But what is big data? How has it impacted large companies and agencies? Why must it be embraced?

The best way to approach utilizing a big data set is to establish a question to answer. For this data set, the question that must be answered is “What variables cause a loss to occur?” To answer this question, first, we must understand what is meant by a “loss”, and take a look …

Car Insurance Rate-Making With An Eye Toward The Future, Stephen Howard

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my project, I investigated car insurance rate-making. I took an in-depth look at the car insurance industry. I also studied driverless cars, and the expected timeline surrounding them. I also took a look at how driverless cars are expected to change the car insurance industry in the coming decades. In general, what I found did not surprise me. I did, however, glean insight from various opinions that I read about how the insurance industry is likely to change. Change of some sort in the car insurance industry is sure to come, with companies likely to become much more multi-faceted. …