Creating (Il)legal Markets: An Ethnography of the Insurance Market in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the insurance market in the conformation of state regulations, responsible for the creation of frontiers between legal and illegal practices in Brazil, with a focus on car insurance as well as the industry agents' commitment to the creation of laws and the competition for new market niches. The aim of this study is to explore how the collaboration between public and private players constitute the governing rules of illegal and informal markets by analyzing two empirical cases: The approval of the Dismantling Act, whose goal is to regulate car parts trade and curb car theft, and the attempts to criminalize vehicle protection products, known as pirated or parallel insurance (seguro pirata or seguro paralelo). The article showcases partial findings from ongoing research based on three different methodologies, namely: i) Multi-sited ethnography carried out in insurance-related events, entities, and companies; ii) Compilation and analysis of ancillary materials, such as news articles, official documents, and industry-specific documentation; iii) Interviews with insurance brokers and insurers' representatives, directors, and employees.

Economía política, filosofía e institucionalidad de la informalidad: reflexiones para los nuevos desafíos

“…De acuerdo con esta demarcación de la legalidad, los fenómenos informales e ilegales son considerados móviles, porque fluctúan entre ellos y de acuerdo con los contextos en los que se desarrollan (Ivancheva & Krastev, 2019;Perelman, 2018;Santo et al, 2018). Las leyes y los agentes los asimilan como tal conforme al espacio en el que ocurren, al grado de legitimidad que se les otorga a los actores y a la actividad económica que involucran (Assis & Erdman, 2021;Dewey, 2018;Fromm, 2019;Ivancheva & Krastev, 2019;Kaufmann & Côte, 2021;Leal, 2018;Moriconi & Peris, 2019;Nogueira, 2019;Perelman, 2022;Pinheiro-Machado, 2018). Esta visión es reproducida por los investigadores, quienes asumen, por ejemplo, que la informalidad es un fenómeno predominantemente urbano que involucra actores legítimos, para cuyo estudio son interesantes los temas que se relacionan con el empleo, el mercado, el comercio y el acceso a la vivienda y al sistema financiero (Basile & Ehlenz, 2020;Bittencourt et al, 2018;Camargo, 2020;Criqui, 2020;Dombroski, 2020;Fernandes, 2021;Ojeda & Pino, 2019aOosterbaan, 2021;Sánchez, 2022;Stiphany et al, 2022;Torres & Ruiz-Tagle, 2018;Wigle, 2020).…”

“…La informalidad normalmente se presenta como tolerada y encausada por parte del Estado (Dewey, 2018;Fromm, 2019;Martens et al, 2022;Moriconi & Peris, 2019;Sandoval-Hernández, 2022).…”

“…Los investigadores consideran que no ocurre lo mismo con los fenómenos ilegales que tienden a ser rechazados y reprimidos por numerosos agentes estatales, económicos y sociales (Assis & Erdman, 2021;Benites, 2022;Fromm, 2019;Kaufmann & Côte, 2021;le Billon et al, 2020;Leal, 2018;Pinheiro-Machado, 2018;Stefanus & Vervaele, 2021). Para estos autores, la ilegalidad se da en mayor medida en espacios marginales, de frontera y rurales e involucra actores ilegítimos (Perelman, 2018).…”

Insurance technopolitics: Car theft, recovery, and tracking systems in São Paulo

“…The latter is based on tags that indicate to consumers and the authorities the vehicle from which a part originated and its legal status. The legislation aims to reduce car robberies and, with that, cheapen the costs of car insurance (Fromm, 2019). It was first implemented in the state of São Paulo, and, later, in 2014, a similar version was created at the federal level.…”

The value of dignity: Health insurance, ethics and court cases in Brazil

“…11.See Fromm (2019) on how insurance companies influence national laws and policies regarding car insurance.…”