The impact of life insurance companies' reputations on policyholders' surrender behavior
利用中国寿险行业2011-2021年数据，结合ChatGPT和主动学习构建感知声誉，发现声誉与退保量负相关，且影响因情绪、事件类型和宏观经济条件而异。
Abstract The impact of reputation of insurers on its market performance has long been a significant issue. Using data from China's life insurance industry from 2011 to 2021, this study combines ChatGPT with active learning to construct the perceived reputations of Chinese insurers. We find that reputation is negatively associated with surrender volume. Further results show that the negative reputational effect on surrender is more salient in positive sentiment, while the reputational effect with negative sentiment is mainly realized through the negative events of lawsuits. A positive reputation matters mainly in financial soundness, customer service, and corporate social responsibility, while managing negative reputation risks is particularly important for corporate governance and government relations. Finally, the paper finds that policyholders prioritize insurers' reputation when inflation, unemployment, and interest rates are low or when the term spread is high. Policyholders are also more sensitive to larger insurers' reputation in a more dynamic market.