About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

25 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 289 (2006-2007)
Beyond Disclosure: The Case for Banning Contingent Commissions

handle is hein.journals/yalpr25 and id is 293 raw text is: Beyond Disclosure: The Case for Banning
Contingent Commissions
Daniel Schwarczt
Intro du ction  ..................................................................................................... 2 90
1.  The Contingent Commission Debate: Increased Steering vs. Reduced
A dverse  Selection  .................................................................................... 296
A. Contingent Commissions and Inefficient Steering ............................ 296
B. Contingent Commissions and Adverse Selection .............................. 303
C. Other Potential Benefits of Contingent Commissions ....................... 305
1.  Contingent Commissions as a Method of Expanding Insurance
C o verag e  .................................................................................... 306
2.   Contingent Commissions as a Protector of Small Agencies ....... 308
3.   Contingent Commissions as a Protector of Small Insurers ........ 309
4.   Contingent Commissions as a Facilitator ofLimited Insurer-
Interm ediary  Interactions ........................................................... 310
II. Contingent Commissions in Consumer Insurance Markets ..................... 311
A. Disclosure, Steering, and Trilateral Dilemmas ................................. 312
B. Evaluating the Adverse Selection Argument ..................................... 319
C. Toward Banning Contingent Commissions ....................................... 321
III. Contingent Commissions in Insurance Markets with Sophisticated
In su red s  ................................................................................................... 3 2 4
A. Steering and Signaling in Sophisticated Insurance Markets ............. 325
B. Mimicry: A New Adverse Selection Model for Sophisticated
Insurance  M arkets ............................................................................. 328
1.  The  M im icry  Assumption  ............................................................ 329
2.   The Consequences of Mimicry .................................................... 330
t Climenko Fellow and Lecturer in Law, Harvard Law School. Associate Professor of Law
Designate, University of Minnesota Law School. Harvard Law School, J.D.; Amherst College, A.B. For
helpful comments and discussion, I thank Tom Baker, Glenn Cohen, Neil Doherty, Scan Fitzpatrick,
Sydney Foster, Jack Goldsmith, Carissa Byrne Hessick, Bert Huang, Howell Jackson, Shannon
McCormick, J.J. Prescott, Steven Schwarcz, Steven Shavell, Peter Siegelman, Matthew Stephenson, and
Sean Williams. This Article benefited from comments received in workshops at Harvard Law School
and the New England Insurance Law Reading Group. Harold Birnbaum and Daniel Epps provided
excellent research assistance.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most