The General-Liability Reform Experiments and the Distribution of Insurance-Market Outcomes
利用纽约和科罗拉多州1984-1991年改革数据，通过分位数回归分析一般责任改革对保险公司盈利能力的影响，发现改善主要源于长期趋势而非改革本身。
Many states enacted tort liability-reform laws in the late 1980s to limit liability costs and stabilize insurance markets. This article uses firm-level data from two states that enacted reforms over the 1984–1991 period—New York and Colorado—to assess the effect of reforms on general-liability insurance. The liability-insurance performance in Pennsylvania and Kentucky—two states that did not adopt reforms—provides a reference point for how insurance markets might have performed otherwise. The quantile regression models indicate that the improvement in insurer profitability was substantial. This improvement, however, appears to be largely attributable to a secular trend rather than to the effect of liability reforms.