About me
I am a Ph.D. candidate in Actuarial Science at Université Laval (Québec, Canada) and an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS). I work on fairness and discrimination in insurance predictive models, under the supervision of Marie-Pier Côté (Université Laval) and Arthur Charpentier (UQAM). My thesis, expected for mid-2027, takes a causal perspective on direct and indirect discrimination based on sensitive characteristics in insurance predictive models, and is carried out in collaboration with one of the largest P&C insurers in Canada.
My research interests include causal inference, algorithmic fairness, insurance pricing, and the governance of predictive models. My doctoral work is supported by an NSERC Canada Graduate Research Scholarship, the SOA Hickman Scholars Program, the Fonds de recherche du Québec, Mitacs, the Chaire d’actuariat de l’Université Laval, and the Leadership and Engagement Scholarship of Université Laval.
Copy-paste ready bio
Olivier Côté is a Ph.D. candidate at the École d'actuariat of Université Laval, in Québec, under the supervision of Marie-Pier Côté and Arthur Charpentier. He holds a master's degree in actuarial science from Université Laval and is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society. His research on fairness and discrimination in insurance pricing won the American Academy of Actuaries 2026 Award for Research. He has received numerous prestigious scholarships for his academic excellence and his leadership, among them the Hickman Scholarship of the Society of Actuaries and the doctoral scholarship of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. His thesis is carried out in collaboration with one of the largest insurance companies in Canada.
Olivier Côté est candidat au doctorat à l'École d'actuariat de l'Université Laval, à Québec, sous la direction de Marie-Pier Côté et d'Arthur Charpentier. Il détient une maîtrise en actuariat de l'Université Laval et le titre d'associé de la Casualty Actuarial Society. Ses travaux sur l'équité et la discrimination en tarification d'assurance lui ont valu le prix de recherche 2026 de l'American Academy of Actuaries. Il a reçu de nombreuses bourses prestigieuses pour son excellence académique et son leadership, dont la bourse Hickman de la Society of Actuaries et la bourse doctorale du Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada. Sa thèse est réalisée en collaboration avec l'une des plus grandes compagnies d'assurance au Canada.
Recent highlights
- Governing fairness in insurance pricing is published in the Journal of Business Ethics (2026).
- A scalable toolbox for exposing indirect discrimination in insurance rates, published by the Casualty Actuarial Society, won the American Academy of Actuaries 2026 Award for Research.
- A statistical perspective on fairness in insurance pricing is in press at Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application (2027).
- Recoverability of market-wide fair insurance premiums under selection bias is published in Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (2026).
- I obtained my ACAS designation from the Casualty Actuarial Society in 2025.
You can find all my papers, with the talks that presented them, on the Publications page.