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on Insurance Economics |
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Issue of 2016‒03‒10
nine papers chosen by Soumitra K. Mallick Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management |
| By: | Tricia Collins; Leslie Foster; Dana Petersen; Rachel Miller |
| Abstract: | Focusing on the diverse states of California, Colorado, and Texas, this issue brief conveys recent policy developments, remaining unmet needs, and emerging issues in children’s health care coverage and delivery, from the perspective of knowledgeable stakeholders. |
| Keywords: | Health Care Coverage , Children, Low-Income Families, Stakeholder , California, Colorado, Texas, Insuring America's Children , Packard Foundation |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2016–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:9d955973005240df993718199c966e58&r=ias |
| By: | International Monetary Fund |
| Abstract: | Since the 2007 FSAP Update, Morocco’s financial system has grown in size and complexity, with increased links between the banking and insurance sectors and a significant expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A new banking law introduced in December 2014 aims to strengthen consolidated supervision and improve bank resolution. The forthcoming central bank law further enhances central bank independence and expands its role to include, inter alia, contributions to financial stability and the oversight of financial market infrastructures. |
| Keywords: | Financial system stability assessment;Financial sector;Stress testing;Banks;Bank supervision;Bank resolution;Securities regulations;Insurance;Pension funds;Payment systems;Economic indicators;Financial soundness indicators;Morocco; |
| Date: | 2016–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:16/37&r=ias |
| By: | Francesca Biagini; Yinglin Zhang |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the pricing and hedging problem of a portfolio of life insurance products under the benchmark approach, where the reference market is modelled as driven by a state variable following a polynomial preserving diffusion on a compact state space. Such a model guarantees not only the positivity of the OIS short rate and the mortality intensity, but also the possibility of approximating both pricing formula and hedging strategy of a large class of life insurance products by explicit formulas. |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1602.07910&r=ias |
| By: | Ilaria Dalla Pozza; Lionel Texier |
| Date: | 2016–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-59&r=ias |
| By: | Frédéric Loss; Gwenaël Piaser |
| Date: | 2016–02–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-42&r=ias |
| By: | Fuchs Tarlovsky,Alan; Wolff,Hendrik |
| Abstract: | Although weather shocks are a major source of income fluctuation, most of the world's poor lack insurance coverage against them. Absence of formal insurance contributes to poverty traps, as investment decisions are conflicted with risk management ones: risk-averse farmers tend to underinvest and produce lower yielding yet safer crops. In the past few years, weather index insurance has gained increasing attention as an effective tool to provide small-scale farmers coverage against aggregate shocks. However, there is little empirical evidence about its effectiveness. This paper studies the effect of the recently introduced rainfall-indexed insurance on farmers'productivity, risk management strategies, as well as per capita income and expenditure in Mexico. The identification strategy takes advantage of the variation across counties and across time in which the insurance was rolled-out. The analysis finds that the presence of insurance in treated counties has significant and positive effects on maize productivity. Similarly, there is a positive association between the presence of insurance in the municipality and rural households'per capita expenditure and income, although no significant relation is found between the presence of insurance and the number of hectares destined for maize production. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Crops and Crop Management Systems,Labor Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction |
| Date: | 2016–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7565&r=ias |
| By: | Gajate-Garrido, Gissele; Ahiadeke, Clement |
| Abstract: | Access to and use of health services are concerns in poor countries. If implemented correctly, health insurance may help solve these concerns. Due to selection and omitted variable bias, however, it is difficult to determine whether joining an insurance scheme improves medical care–seeking behaviors. This paper uses representative data for the whole country of Ghana and an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal impact on healthcare use of participating in Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme. Idiosyncratic variations in membership rules at the district level provide exogenous variation in enrollment. The instrument is the existence of nonstandard verification methods to allow enrollment of children. Using the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and a census of all district insurance offices, this paper finds that insurance membership increases the probability of (1) seeking higher-quality (but no greater quantity of) maternal services and (2) parents’ becoming more active users of child curative care. Instrumental variable estimates are larger than ordinary least squares ones, indicating that “compliers” have much higher returns to being insured than the average participant. Results are robust to several validity checks; this paper shows that the instrument is indeed idiosyncratic and proves that government officials did not establish less-cumbersome membership rules in districts with worse initial indicators. |
| Keywords: | health insurance, child health, maternal health, heterogeneous treatment effects, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1495&r=ias |
| By: | Matthew N. White (Department of Economics, University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | This article presents a model to analyze consumer welfare, price, and competition in a three-way market among consumers, medical providers, and insurers. While insurers compete with each other for customers, they also act as collective bargaining agents on behalf of consumers in determining the equilibrium price of health care with providers. The entry of an additional insurer thus has contradictory effects on welfare, reducing premiums through competition but increasing price through reduced bargaining power of incumbent insurers. Moreover, the more favorable contracts allow consumers to purchase care more often, shifting out the demand curve for care and increasing price. |
| Keywords: | Medical insurance, consumer welfare, insurer competition, bargaining |
| JEL: | D43 I11 L13 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:16-02&r=ias |
| By: | Chisako Yamamoto (Hamamatsu Gakuin University); Tanji Hoshi (Tokyo Metropolitan University) |
| Abstract: | Yamamoto’s previous study showed that the prevalence of dementia in the community-dwelling elderly of 65 years and older in City A of Tokyo was decreasing during a six-year follow-up 2001-2007, suggesting that there should be some factors specific to City A. The purpose of this study is to clarify City A’s specific factors in decreasing prevalence of dementia. Health status of the analysis subjects was examined in terms of ratios of approval for long-term care insurance, proportions of the elderly who had a family dentist, habits of smoking and alcohol intake, educational attainment (years of education) and interest in health issues. The analysis results were discussed reviewing official statistics and the results of previous studies. The analysis subjects showed lower ratio of approval for long-term care insurance than City A’s and National statistics. More than 70% of them had a family dentist even in 2001. Proportions of smokers in male analysis subjects were decreasing over years. As for educational attainment, 38.9% had more than 13 years of education and 24.7% had more than 16 years in the 2004 survey. The higher educational attainment, interest in health and health literacy observed in the analysis subjects seem to have been specific factors which might have promoted their health status and contributed to decreasing the prevalence of dementia. Education might be a key to decrease the prevalence of dementia. |
| Keywords: | prevalence of dementia; long-term care insurance; family dentist; smoking; alcohol intake; educational attainment; health literacy. |
| JEL: | I19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3305765&r=ias |