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on Insurance Economics |
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Issue of 2020‒04‒13
eight papers chosen by Soumitra K. Mallick Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management |
| By: | Gicheva, Dora (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Anand, Priyanka (George Mason University, Department of Health Administration and Policy) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether expanding Medicaid eligibility affects the employment patterns and academic progress of college students. To estimate causal relationships, we use the variation in eligibility due to the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions that occurred in a subset of U.S. states. We use data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to show that expanding Medicaid resulted in a decrease in employment intensity by students at community colleges, an increase in the number of transfers to four-year colleges, and higher graduation rates in four-year institutions, suggesting that expanding Medicaid led to an improvement in academic progress. |
| Keywords: | postsecondary persistence; enrollment intensity; labor supply in college; health insurance; Medicaid expansion; |
| JEL: | I13 I21 I22 I24 |
| Date: | 2020–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2020_003&r=all |
| By: | Adam Sacarny; Katherine Baicker; Amy Finkelstein |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of expanded adult Medicaid eligibility on the Medicaid enrollment of already-eligible children. To do so, we exploit the 2008 Oregon Medicaid lottery, in which some low-income uninsured adults were randomly selected for the chance to apply for Medicaid. Children in these households were eligible for Medicaid irrespective of whether the household won the lottery. We estimate statistically significant but transitory impacts of adult lottery selection on children’s Medicaid enrollment: for every 9 adults who enroll in Medicaid due to the lottery, one additional child also enrolls at the same time. Our results shed light on the existence, magnitude, and nature of so-called “woodwork effects”. |
| JEL: | H53 I13 I38 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26871&r=all |
| By: | Juan Pablo Atal; Hanming Fang; Martin Karlsson; Nicolas R. Ziebarth |
| Abstract: | To insure policyholders against contemporaneous health expenditure shocks and future reclassification risk, long-term health insurance constitutes an alternative to community-rated short-term contracts with an individual mandate. Relying on unique claims panel data from a large private insurer in Germany, we study a real-world long-term health insurance application with a life-cycle perspective. We show that German long-term health insurance (GLTHI) achieves substantial welfare gains compared to a series of risk-rated short-term contracts. Although, by its simple design, the premium setting of GLTHI contract departs significantly from the optimal dynamic contract, surprisingly we only find modest welfare differences between the two. Finally, we conduct counterfactual policy experiments to illustrate the welfare consequences of integrating GLTHI into a system with a “Medicare-like” public insurance that covers people above 65. |
| JEL: | G22 I11 I18 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26870&r=all |
| By: | Amelie Schiprowski |
| Abstract: | Caseworkers are the main human resources used to provide social services. This paper asks if, and how much, caseworkers matter for the outcomes of unemployed individuals. Using large-scale administrative data, I exploit exogenous variation in unplanned absences among Swiss UI caseworkers. I find that individuals who lose a meeting with their caseworker stay unemployed 5% longer. Results show large heterogeneity in the personal impact of caseworkers: the effect of a foregone meeting is zero for caseworkers in the lower half of the productivity distribution, while it amounts to more than twice the average effect for caseworkers in the upper half. |
| Keywords: | Public Human Resources, Caseworkers, Unemployment Insurance |
| JEL: | J64 J65 M50 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_165&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Lichter; Amelie Schiprowski |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the potential duration of unemployment benefits affects individuals' job search behavior and re-employment outcomes. We exploit an unexpected reform of the German unemployment insurance scheme in 2008, which increased the potential benefit duration from 12 to 15 months for recipients of age 50 to 54. Based on detailed survey data and difference-in-differences techniques, we estimate that one additional month of benefits reduces the number of filed applications by around 10% on average over the first two months of unemployment. Treatment effects on the reservation wage are positive but statistically insignificant. In a complementary analysis, we use social security data to investigate how the reform affected re-employment outcomes. The difference-in-differences estimates yield an elasticity of 0.24 (0.1) additional months in unemployment (nonemployment) per additional month of potential benefits. A cautious back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals substantial returns to early search effort. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment Insurance, Job Search, Re-Employment Outcomes, Natural Experiment |
| JEL: | D83 I38 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2020_164&r=all |
| By: | Kevin Kuo; Daniel Lupton |
| Abstract: | Machine learning methods have garnered increasing interest among actuaries in recent years. However, their adoption by practitioners has been limited, partly due to the lack of transparency of these methods, as compared to generalized linear models. In this paper, we discuss the need for model interpretability in property & casualty insurance ratemaking, propose a framework for explaining models, and present a case study to illustrate the framework. |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2003.10674&r=all |
| By: | Younsi, Moheddine; Bechtini, Marwa |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to examine the effects of insurance development on health expenditure and economic growth for 31 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries covering the period 1995-2015, using a panel causality approach. We also tested the causal effect of national income and population density on health expenditure. The results confirm that, over the long term, insurance factors, national income and population density exhibit positive and statistically significant effects on health expenditure. The results also confirm that the insurance factor has greater income effects than the substitution effects on health expenditure. Regarding the short-term causality, the empirical results show that economic growth strengthens growth in health expenditure, while growth in insurance reduces growth in health expenditure. In the short term, the insurance factor produces crowded-out effects. The foregoing outcomes provide policy implications that governments should take into account the crowded short-term effects of private insurance sections on health expenditure when developing fiscal policies related to health expenditure. |
| Keywords: | Health expenditure, Insurance development, Economic growth, Causality test |
| JEL: | C12 C23 G15 I15 |
| Date: | 2020–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:99091&r=all |
| By: | Ana Cordilha (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article seeks to show how financialization is reshaping Public Health Care Systems (PHCS). To do so, we combine a theoretical discussion and an empirical investigation to examine the increasing participation of financial actors and instruments in these systems over the last decades. In the first part, we present the conventional approach for assessing PHCS transformation to date and argue for the need to incorporate the concept of 'financialization'. In the second part, we suggest a method for empirically examining how financialization alters the internal structures and organization of PHCS. In the last part, we apply this method to conduct an in-depth analysis of the French public health system, Assurance Maladie (AM). Our findings provide robust evidence that financialization had a major influence in the direction taken by the post-1990s reforms in this case, with new strategies allowing the increased participation of financial capital in the system's long-term, short-term, and investment financing. In the conclusion , we provide a critical assessment of financialized strategies, highlighting their adverse impacts on core principles of PHCS such as solidarity, stability, and democratic participation. |
| Keywords: | Health,Health Care Financing,Public Health,National Government Health Expendi- ture,Social Security,Deficit,Debt,General Financial Markets |
| Date: | 2020–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02525884&r=all |