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on Insurance Economics |
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Issue of 2017‒02‒05
nine papers chosen by Soumitra K. Mallick Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha; Connelly, Luke B. |
| Abstract: | Though the impact of cost-sharing on health care demand is well documented in developed countries, evidence from developing countries is rare. This paper’s contribution is to analyse the impact of increasing coinsurance in a developing nation -Vietnam – by exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in that country. In 2007, the Vietnam government reintroduced a 20 percent coinsurance for individuals who hold voluntary health insurance policies. As individuals with compulsory health insurance were exempt from this re-imposition of coinsurance, this policy change may be regarded as a quasi-natural experiment. To exploit this change, we use a difference-in-difference approach to examine whether the increase in coinsurance effectively reduced the demand for health care services among those affected. We find it has no statistically significant effect on the quantity of health care demanded. We however find that those who were under 18 or in low income households reduced their health care use after the increase in coinsurance. These findings hold – at least in the short-run, with a variety of different outcomes and estimators. |
| Keywords: | Health insurance, Difference-in-difference, Cost-sharing, Developing country, Vietnam |
| JEL: | G22 I13 I18 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76399&r=ias |
| By: | Maclean, J. Catherine (Temple University); Popovici, Ioana (Nova Southeastern University); Stern, Elisheva Rachel (Temple University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers respond to private health insurance expansions induced by state equal coverage ('parity') laws for SUD treatment. We use data on the near universe of specialty SUD treatment providers in the United States between 1997 and 2010 in an event study analysis. During this period, 18 states implemented parity laws. Following the passage of a state parity law we find that providers are less likely to participate in public markets, are less likely to provide charity care, increase the quantity of healthcare provided, and become more selective of the type of patients they are willing to admit. |
| Keywords: | healthcare, provider behavior, substance use disorders, health insurance mandates |
| JEL: | I1 I11 I18 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10478&r=ias |
| By: | Gemmo, Irina; Götz, Martin |
| Abstract: | Households buy life insurance as part of their liquidity management. The option to surrender such a policy can serve as a buffer when a household faces a liquidity need. In this study, we investigate empirically which individual and household specific sociodemographic factors influence the surrender behavior of life insurance policyholders. Based on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), an ongoing wide-ranging representative longitudinal study of around 11,000 private households in Germany, we construct a proxy to identify life insurance surrender in the data. We use this proxy to conduct fixed effect regressions and support the results with survival analyses. We find that life events that possibly impose a liquidity shock to the household, such as birth of a child and divorce increase the likelihood to surrender an existing life insurance policy for an average household in the panel. The acquisition of a dwelling and unemployment are further aspects that can foster life insurance surrender. Our results are robust with respect to different models and hold conditioning on region specific trends; they vary however for different age groups. Our analyses contribute to the existing literature supporting the emergency fund hypothesis. The findings obtained in this study can help life insurers and regulators to detect and understand industry specific challenges of the demographic change. |
| Keywords: | Demographic Change,Life Insurance,Surrender |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:icirwp:2416&r=ias |
| By: | Davis, Todd; Mark, Tyler; Shepherd, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | A stochastic simulation model is used to evaluate the profitability and liquidity of a low cost / low debt and high cost / high debt Western Kentucky corn-soybean farm over a five-year period. The model evaluates the effectiveness of crop insurance, government programs, and cash-forward contracts risk management tools and the impact on liquidity and profitability. |
| Keywords: | simulation, grain, insurance, farm policy, price risk, Agricultural Finance, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty, Q, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252745&r=ias |
| By: | Luo, Tianyuan |
| Keywords: | This paper studies the impact government provided public health insurance on the labor decisions to agricultural sector in China and applies Difference-in-Differences as well as Triple-difference model with the Heckman selection model on dataset obtained from China Health and Nutrition Survey. Findings suggest that public health insurance would decrease people’s probability of working in farm sector but increase the weekly hours devoted to farm works for those who choose to work on farms., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252796&r=ias |
| By: | Guan, Xue; Ahrendsen, Bruce L.; Liu, Yumei |
| Abstract: | The study investigates whether vegetable price index insurance could be applied to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of China and identifies farmers’ interest in the insurance. Vegetable price index insurance is growing rapidly in China and was recently introduced in the Shanghai region. Although the BTH region is an important region for vegetable production and consumption, no such insurance is currently available in the region. Survey data from 450 farmers in the BTH region were collected during July-August 2016. Factors influencing farmer demand for vegetable price index insurance in the region are identified by estimating a probit model. Four categories of factors are considered: location, demographics (gender, age, education, and experience), farm characteristics (size, organization membership, yield, and net income), and risk cognition (market price sensitivity, other insurance purchased, price risk type and recent loss experience from low price). The results should assist the Chinese government structure and promote a vegetable price insurance that will be an effective method to maintain vegetable prices in the region and promote vegetable production by farmers. |
| Keywords: | insurance demand, price index insurance, vegetable price, probit model, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Demand and Price Analysis, G22, Q14, |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252846&r=ias |
| By: | SUZUKI Wataru |
| Abstract: | Fifteen years have passed since Japan introduced the public long-term care insurance (LTCI) system in 2000. From an economics perspective, we review the experiences that Japan accumulated in running the LTCI system, evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the present system, and propose some feasible reforms to improve the system. One of the major reasons for introducing the LTCI system in 2000 was to stimulate a jump in the supply of long-term services in Japan through reforming the system from a heavily regulated and tax-subsidized welfare program into a market-oriented program which permits for-profit private providers to enter the market. Initially, the LTCI system successfully met its goal of expanding care services and alleviating the excessive burden of family care givers. However, a series of "anti-market" fiscal control measures introduced afterward severely damaged the usability of the system. We suspect that the ongoing additional fiscal control measures will revert the LTCI system into the old welfare program, making the initial success of market reform futile. Can Japan seek a way to overcome the negative spiral of fiscal control measures and worsening usability of the system? Full utilization of market mechanisms, as the initial reformers had pursued, could be the correct answer. Specific market-oriented reforms include constructing a full-funded system through a LTC version of the Medical Saving Account (MSA), permitting mixed usage of insurance covered and non-covered services to give service providers more freedom in price control, deregulating the barriers to entry, introducing cash payment for family care givers, and privatizing the insurance management. |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rpdpjp:16014&r=ias |
| By: | Lerzan Ülgentürk |
| Abstract: | Contingent liabilities are major sources of fiscal risks due to the uncertain financial commitments they involve. Their effective management, therefore, is essential for increasing stability and predictability in public finance. This paper explores the role of public debt managers in contingent liability management based on the results of a background OECD survey and the information provided by seven task force countries. The results indicate that there are certain roles and responsibilities assumed by the public debt managers in this field, while the degree of involvement differs widely across countries. We also observed that the debt management offices’ (DMOs) involvement is more prominent in the management of government credit guarantees, while contingent liabilities arising from Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and government sponsored insurance programmes appear to be outside the domain of public debt managers in most cases. Drawing on leading country practices and lessons from the past, this paper advises public debt managers on possible motives and areas of involvement. |
| Keywords: | contingent liabilities, fiscal risk, government credit guarantees, government insurance programmes, public debt management, public private partnerships |
| JEL: | G18 H63 H81 |
| Date: | 2017–02–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:dafaaf:8-en&r=ias |
| By: | Kudo, Yuya |
| Abstract: | Levirate marriage, whereby a widow is inherited by male relatives of her deceased husband, has anecdotally been viewed as informal insurance for widows who have limited property rights. This study investigates why this widespread practice in sub-Saharan Africa has recently been disappearing. A developed game-theoretic analysis reveals that levirate marriage arises as a pure strategy subgame perfect equilibrium when a husband's clan desires to keep children of the deceased within its extended family and widows have limited independent livelihood means. Female empowerment renders levirate marriage redundant because it increases widows' reservation utility. HIV/AIDS also discourages a husband's clan from inheriting a widow who loses her husband to HIV/AIDS, reducing her remarriage prospects and thus, reservation utility because she is likely to be HIV positive. Consequently, widows' welfare tends to decline (increase) in step with the deterioration of levirate marriage driven by HIV/AIDS (female empowerment). By exploiting long-term household panel data drawn from rural Tanzania and testing multiple theoretical predictions relevant to widows' welfare and women's fertility, this study finds that HIV/AIDS is primarily responsible for the deterioration of levirate marriage. Young widows in Africa may need some form of social protection against the influence of HIV/AIDS. |
| Keywords: | Women welfare, Social customs, Marriage, Diseases, Tanzania, Female empowerment, HIV/AIDS, Informal insurance, levirate marriage, Social institution, Widowhood protection |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper627&r=ias |