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on Insurance Economics |
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Issue of 2009‒08‒08
three papers chosen by Soumitra K Mallick Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Bussiness Management |
| By: | Hennessy, David A. |
| Abstract: | The U.S. federal government implements environmental, biofuels and crop insurance programs that influence land use. They are not well integrated in that cost savings from crop insurance subsidies are not acknowledged when screening land for retirement or when calculating the cost of land retirement programs. We identify and evaluate an optimal benefit index for enrollment in a land retirement program that includes a sub-index to rank land according to insurance subsidy savings. All else equal, land ranked higher in the Lorenz stochastic order should be retired first. |
| Keywords: | agro-environmental policy, budget, Conservation Reserve Program, crop failure, Environmental Benefit Index, Lorenz order. |
| Date: | 2009–07–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:13097&r=ias |
| By: | David A. Hennessy (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)) |
| Abstract: | The U.S. federal government implements environmental, biofuels and crop insurance programs that influence land use. They are not well integrated in that cost savings from crop insurance subsidies are not acknowledged when screening land for retirement or when calculating the cost of land retirement programs. We identify and evaluate an optimal benefit index for enrollment in a land retirement program that includes a sub-index to rank land according to insurance subsidy savings. All else equal, land ranked higher in the Lorenz stochastic order should be retired first. |
| Keywords: | agro-environmental policy, budget, Conservation Reserve Program, crop failure, Environmental Benefit Index, Lorenz order. |
| JEL: | Q18 Q28 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:09-wp495&r=ias |
| By: | Nicolas R. Ziebarth |
| Abstract: | This study is the first to estimate the price elasticities of demand for both medical rehabilitation programs and treatment at health spas. In Germany, the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) covers both forms of therapy if administered in authorized medical facilities on referral from a physician. While health resort stays are prescribed to recover from general symptoms of poor health and are preventive in character, medical rehabilitation implies recovering from a specific illness or accident. From 1997 onwards, the German government more than doubled the copayments for both types of health care services from DM 12 (e6.14) to DM 25 (e12.78) per day for those insured under the SHI. Using longitudinal microdata from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), this exogenous price variation allows us to study the causal effects on demand, since we have a sound control group available. The data suggest that pull-forward effects in 1996 accounted for up to one-fifth of the subsequent decrease in demand. Taking this anticipation effect into account, we show that the reform induced a decrease in total demand of about 20 percent. We estimate the price elasticity for rehabilitation programs that aim at preventing work incapacity to be about -0.15, whereas the elasticity for rehabilitation programs for recovery from work accidents lies around -0.30. In contrast, the price elasticity for treatment at health spas is elastic and lies between -1 and -2.5. |
| Keywords: | Convalescent care, health spa, medical rehabilitation, price elasticities, SOEP |
| JEL: | H51 I1 I18 J22 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp212&r=ias |