|
on Insurance Economics |
|
Issue of 2017‒02‒19
sixteen papers chosen by Soumitra K. Mallick Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management |
| By: | Étienne Gaudette (University of Southern California); Gwyn C. Pauley (University of Southern California); Julie Zissimopoulos (University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | Gaining access to health insurance in childhood has been associated with improved childhood health and educational attainment. Expansions in health insurance access have steadily lowered the rates of uninsured children and may have long term consequences for adult health and well being. This paper analyzes the impact of gaining health insurance in childhood on health and economic outcomes during adulthood using dynamic microsimulation. We find disease prevalence at age 65 falls for most chronic conditions, with the exception of cancer. We also find increased access to health insurance in childhood results in 11 additional months of life expectancy and 16 additional months lived free of disability. There is no change in total lifetime medical spending, although both Medicaid and Medicare expenditures fall. Lifetime earnings increase by about 8% for individuals who gain the benefits of childhood health insurance. |
| Date: | 2016–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp355&r=ias |
| By: | Zenker, Juliane; Herrmann, Tabea |
| Abstract: | Funeral Aid Associations (FAAs) in Northeast Thailand offer micro funeral insurance at affordable premium levels while they barely risk-rate potential members. Due to the set-up of FAAs, high-risk individuals have a monetary incentive to join the insurance. Compared to many other micro insurance schemes, however, FAAs do not seem to face adverse effects of this unregulated selection of high-risk individuals into the schemes. We show that this is partly due to a counter-balancing selection of a sufficient number of low-risk individuals, who deliberately buy insurance despite what their risk types would advice. This is particularly the case for married individuals who self-select into the associations at relatively lower risks. We provide a theoretical framework showing that marriage may reduce mortality risk and at the same time increase insurance demand based on altruistic tendencies towards the spouse. Our results suggest that this preference based selection is able to balance 13 percent of the high-risk type selection based on age, health, and gender. |
| JEL: | D14 D82 G22 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145653&r=ias |
| By: | Johanna Catherine Maclean; Ioana Popovici; Elisheva Rachel Stern |
| 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. |
| JEL: | I1 I11 I18 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23094&r=ias |
| By: | Lisa Bagnoli |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a propensity score matching approach to assess the impact of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on health utilization and health outcomes for children under five years old using a nationally representative Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey from 2011. The results show that even though health insurance is free for children, around half of them are not insured, with the probability of enrollment being significantly affected by many characteristics. Nationally, the insurance increases both health care utilization and the overall health status of children. Nevertheless, there are important discrepancies across regional results suggesting that the largest gains are found in the poorest regions, which correspond to those with the worse average health outcomes. However, some other regions present none or only very limited gains attributable to the insurance. |
| Keywords: | health insurance; health; health care utilization; children; Ghana; propensity score matching |
| JEL: | H51 I38 I10 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/246227&r=ias |
| By: | Dieterle, Steven; Bartalotti, Otávio C.; Brummet, Quentin O. |
| Abstract: | We reassess the literature using county border pair identification strategies to examine the effects of UI benefit duration on labor market conditions. We extend these previous approaches using a regression discontinuity-based approach that controls for changes in unobservables by distance to the border and accounts for measurement error induced by using county-level aggregates. Our new results provide no evidence of a large change in unemployment induced by differences in UI generosity across state boundaries, bringing the evidence from border-based identification strategies in line with estimates from other strands of the UI benefit duration literature. |
| Date: | 2016–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:201604210700001002&r=ias |
| By: | Tiwari, Sweta; Coble, Keith; Harri, Ardian; Barnett, Barry |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:253081&r=ias |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program paid $143 billion in 2015 to a total of 11 million beneficiaries. After 2018, spending for that program is projected to exceed its income and, under current law, the DI trust fund would be exhausted in 2022, CBO projects. In this report, CBO analyzes how DI enrollment and spending have changed over time and examines approaches policymakers could take to improve the financial sustainability of the program. |
| JEL: | H55 H60 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:514431&r=ias |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program paid $143 billion in 2015 to a total of 11 million beneficiaries. After 2018, spending for that program is projected to exceed its income and, under current law, the DI trust fund would be exhausted in 2022, CBO projects. In this report, CBO analyzes how DI enrollment and spending have changed over time and examines approaches policymakers could take to improve the financial sustainability of the program. |
| JEL: | H55 H60 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:514432&r=ias |
| By: | Congressional Budget Office |
| Abstract: | The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program paid $143 billion in 2015 to a total of 11 million beneficiaries. After 2018, spending for that program is projected to exceed its income and, under current law, the DI trust fund would be exhausted in 2022, CBO projects. In this report, CBO analyzes how DI enrollment and spending have changed over time and examines approaches policymakers could take to improve the financial sustainability of the program. |
| JEL: | H55 H60 J26 |
| Date: | 2016–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbo:report:514430&r=ias |
| By: | Martin Halla; Susanne Pech; Martina Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | Social insurance programs typically comprise sick-leave insurance. An important policy parameter is how the costs of lost productivity due to sick leave are shared between workers, firms, and the social security system. We show that this sharing rule affects not only absence behavior but also workers' subsequent health. To inform our empirical analysis, we propose a model in which workers' absence decisions are conditional on the sharing rule, health, and a dismissal probability. Our empirical analysis is based on high-quality administrative data sources from Austria. Identification is based on idiosyncratic variation in the sharing rule caused by different policy reforms and sharp discontinuities at certain job tenure levels and firm sizes. An increase in either the workers' or the firms' cost share, both at public expense, decreases the number of sick-leave days. Policy-induced variation in sick leave has a significant effect on subsequent healthcare costs. The average worker in our sample is in the domain of presenteeism, that is, an increase in sick leave due to reductions in workers' or firms' cost share would reduce healthcare costs and the incidence of workplace accidents. |
| Keywords: | statutory sick-pay, sick leave, presenteeism, absenteeism, moral hazard, healthcare cost |
| JEL: | I18 J22 J38 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2017-04&r=ias |
| By: | Boyd Gilman; Barbara Gage; Susan Haber; Sonja Hoover; Jeremy Green; Anne Ciemnecki; Karen CyBulski; Nancy Clusen |
| Keywords: | Vermont Pharmacy Assistance Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries Enrollee Nonenrollee survey |
| JEL: | I |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:0084f4a2c1494eefa5f7706cf92a1d02&r=ias |
| By: | Xie, Zoe |
| Abstract: | Contrary to assumptions in the unemployment insurance (UI) literature, this paper argues that unemployed workers do not always lose uncollected UI benefits when they start a new job. Instead, they may postpone the collection of leftover benefits to future unemployment spells. Further, using cross-time and cross-state variations in UI policies, the paper finds empirical evidence that allowing unemployed workers to delay the collection of benefits increases their incentives to find a job during recessions when wages are low, job separation rates are high, and UI benefits are extended. I quantify the effects of the policy of allowing delayed collection of benefits on aggregate unemployment by introducing endogenous search effort, benefit eligibility, and wage indexed benefits into a standard search-and-matching framework. The model demonstrates how the policy increases the future value of employment even though more generous UI benefits in general reduce the net value of employment. Using a calibrated model,I find that allowing delayed benefit collection raises the proportion of unemployed workers receiving benefits and reduces the unemployment rate during 2009–2012. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment insurance, Unemployment, Short-term employment |
| JEL: | E65 J64 J65 |
| Date: | 2015–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76564&r=ias |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We examine patterns of labor market integration across immigrant groups. The study draws on Norwegian longitudinal administrative data covering labor earnings and social insurance claims over a 25‐year period and presents a comprehensive picture of immigrant‐native employment and social insurance differentials by admission class and by years since entry. For refugees and family immigrants from low‐income source countries, we uncover encouraging signs of labor market integration during an initial period upon admission, but after just 5‐10 years, the integration process goes into reverse with widening immigrant-native employment differentials and rising rates of immigrant social insurance dependency. Yet, the analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity within admission class and points to an important role of host‐country schooling for successful immigrant labor market integration. |
| Keywords: | migration, refugees, assimilation, social insurance |
| JEL: | F22 H55 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10513&r=ias |
| By: | Ceballos, Francisco |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a novel methodology to estimate the degree of spatial basis risk for an arbitrary rainfall index insurance instrument. It relies on a widelyused stochastic rainfall generator, extendedto accommodate nontraditional dependence patterns—in particular spatial upper-tail dependence in rainfall—through a copula function. The methodology is applied to a recentlylaunched index product insuring against excess rainfall in Uruguay. The model is first calibrated using historical daily rainfall data from the national network of weather stations, complemented with a unique,high-resolution dataset from a dense network of 34 automatic weather stations around the study area. The degree of downside spatial basis risk is then estimated by Monte Carlo simulations and the results are linked to both a theoretical model of the demand for index insurance and to farmers’ perceptions about the product. |
| Keywords: | rain, rainfall patterns, insurance, weather, precipitation, risk management, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1595&r=ias |
| By: | Cynthia Van Hulle; Hans Degryse; Kristien Smedts |
| Abstract: | Providing risk-sharing benefits to risk-averse policy holders is a primary function of insurance companies. We model that policy holders are paying a fee over the present value of indemnifications (i.e., technical provisions) to enjoy these risksharing benefits. This fee implies that a capital structure largely consisting of technical provisions is optimal for insurance firms, making the traditional Modigliani-Miller logic inappropriate for them. To support the issuance of technical provisions with socially desirable properties, insurance firms hold a surplus to absorb losses. We show that the Modigliani-Miller logic applies to the composition of this loss-absorption capacity. This explains why insurance companies may use, next to equity and technical provisions, financial debt in supporting their activities. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:afiper:571404&r=ias |
| By: | Pham-Dao, Lien |
| Abstract: | Since the release of the first wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, the causes of the large euro area differences in private net wealth inequality have been at the forefront of the political debate. This paper assesses the quantitative importance of cross-country differences in labor market risks and social security institutions for euro area differences in private net wealth inequality. I document the empirical puzzle that euro area countries with the largest reduction in the income Gini coefficient through public transfers and with most generous welfare states, robustly show a higher inequality in private net wealth. Going back to the argument by Hubbard et al. (1995) that public insurance crowds out private savings especially of the poor, I construct a life cycle model with heterogeneous households and incomplete markets that features exogenous labor market risks, social transfers and public and occupational pensions. Calibrating the model to the actual euro area differences in the gross earnings process, unemployment dynamics and social security systems, it can account for 61.2% of the cross-country differences in the net wealth Gini coefficients for the bottom 95% of the wealth distribution. The model results suggest that welfare policies contribute with 47.3% to the wealth inequality differences across the euro area, while gross earnings inequality and unemployment can rationalize 13.9%. |
| JEL: | D31 D91 E21 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145942&r=ias |