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Working Paper
Coverage Neglect in Homeowner's Insurance
Most homeowners do not have enough insurance coverage to rebuild their house after a total loss. Using contract-level data from 24 homeowner's insurance companies in Colorado, we show wide differences in average underinsurance across insurers that persist conditional on policyholder characteristics. Underinsurance matters for disaster recovery. Across households that lost homes to a major wildfire, each 10 percentage point increase in underinsurance reduces the likelihood of filing a rebuilding permit within a year of the fire by 4 percentage points. To understand why consumers purchase ...