Contacts
Launch of the research project coordinated by Marco Percoco and promoted by AXA to understand how services, consumer behavior and attitudes to risk in cities change with the sharing economy

The sharing economy has transformed cities in recent years in terms of the organization of services and consumer behavior, which has in turn changed the perception and sharing of risks connected to them. Understanding these changes is the objective of the Joint Research Initiative research project 'Sharing Behaviour and Risk Attitudes in the Urban World' promoted by AXA and coordinated by Marco Percoco, professor at the Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, and which will involve other Bocconi academics.

With a focus on the housing and transport markets, the two-year project will study the impact of the sharing economy on cities, analysing how new services are used, how the structure of traditional markets changes and, from a behavioral point of view, how the attitude to risk of consumers using a shared good or service changes.

"In addition to analysing the diffusion and distribution of sharing services in the city, we also want to study how these 'new markets' impact on the perception, taking and sharing of risk and the allocation of risk between customer and service provider. We will analyse, for example, black boxes to understand motorists' aversion to and perception of risk, and we will also try to test whether the use of an owned car as opposed to a shared car makes individuals more or less virtuous when driving," explains Percoco. "AXA will also participate by providing useful data for research, as well as providing important statistical analysis expertise."

Joint Research Initiatives (JRIs) are promoted by AXA to foster collaboration between academics and AXA experts to study and develop innovative ideas on the subject of risks. JRIs are one of the funding initiatives promoted by the broader AXA Research Fund initiative launched by the AXA Group in 2017 to increase the awareness of and prevention of risks.

AXA Italia has been a partner of Bocconi since 2011, when the Chair in Risk Theory assigned by the AXA Research Fund to Prof. Massimo Marinacci was established. Since then, numerous other projects have followed: the assignment of a Post-Doc to Nicoletta Balbo, of the Carlo F. Dondena Research Centre, two editions of the FuturAXA program - reserved for students of the Graduate school - and the annual AXA-Bocconi Seminar on topics of emerging risk. The collaboration has now been further consolidated with, in addition to the launch of the Joint Research Initiative, the publication of an eBook on Prof. Marinacci's research themes and with the AXA Challenge, a project work that involved the students of the course in Technology and Innovation Strategy.



Research