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The impact of state taxes on self-insurance

Journal of Accounting and Economics 2000 30(1), 99-122
This paper assesses whether insurers’ state taxes reduce purchases of property-casualty coverage. Tests are conducted using state aggregates of insurer-level data from publicly available, annual accounting reports for 1993–1995. A positive relation between self-insurance and state taxes is detected, consistent with consumers opting to self-insure rather than bear the incidence of higher insurer taxes. As expected, tax effects vary with the elasticity of demand. When demand is largely inelastic, e.g., automobile liability coverage, taxes do not affect self-insurance.