That’s Not Fair! Navigating the Duality of Fairness in Insurance
Mustafa Kavas is exploring the delicate balance between actuarial fairness and solidarity fairness within the insurance industry.
Project overview
Actuarial fairness calculates premiums based on individual risk, whereas solidarity fairness distributes risks across all policyholders, thereby promoting a collective safeguard. This research is crucial as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of natural disasters, pushing insurance premiums to unaffordable levels for many. We focus on a government-legislated insurance pool, Fair Inc., designed to mitigate the affordability crisis in high-risk areas.
Through a longitudinal study over four years, we developed a conceptual framework that illustrates how Fair Inc. successfully navigates these two forms of fairness, revealing that they are interdependent rather than mutually exclusive. This discovery suggests that it is possible to design insurance systems that uphold both social equity and financial sustainability.
This research offers significant insights into the insurance sector, especially relevant in the context of increasing environmental risks due to climate change. By highlighting the interdependence of actuarial and solidarity fairness, the study proposes a sustainable model that can guide future policies and practices in the insurance industry. The findings have the potential to influence both national and international insurance policy frameworks, making insurance both accessible and economically viable for high-risk populations. This study not only contributes to academic discourse but also serves as a crucial resource for policymakers, insurance companies, and stakeholders involved in reforming insurance practices to better serve society.
Key research outputs
Chalkias, K., Jarzabkowski, P., Kavas, M. and Krull, E. (2025) ‘That’s Not Fair! Navigating the Duality of Fairness in Insurance’, The British Journal of Sociology. Available at:
