The Demand for Insurance With an Upper Limit on Coverage

The demand for insurance is examined when the indemnity schedule is subject to an upper limit. The optimal contract is shown to display full insurance above a deductible up to the cap. Some results derived in the standard model with no upper limit on coverage turn out to be invalid; the optimal deductible of an actuarially fair policy is positive and insurance may be a normal good under decreasing absolute risk aversion. An increase in the upper limit would induce the policyholder with constant absolute risk aversion to reduce his or her optimal deductible and therefore this would increase the demand for insurance against small losses.     

美国的保险监管

从18世纪开始,美国对探索保险的监管方向做出不断的努力。本文作者为我们介绍了美国保险监管的发展历程和几次重大的立法与案例对其的影响,以及近期监管政府可能做出的政策选择。作者古奎特·李(L.Lee Colquitt)博士是美国奥本大学胡德夫金融学教授,此文由本刊的美国特约编辑杰姆斯·巴茨(James R.Barth)博士提供。     

The Effects of Uncertainty on the Demand for Health Insurance

This article analyzes the effects of uncertainty and increases in risk aversion on the demand for health insurance using a theoretical model that highlights the interdependence between insurance and health care demand decisions. Two types of uncertainty faced by the individuals are examined. The first one is the uncertainty in the consumer's pretreatment health and the second is the uncertainty surrounding the productivity of health care. Comparative statics results are reported indicating the impact on the demand for insurance of shifts in the distributions of pretreatment health and productivity of health care in the form of first‐order stochastic dominance, Rothschild–Stiglitz mean‐preserving spreads, and second‐order stochastic dominance. The demand for insurance increases in response to a Rothschild–Stiglitz increase in risk in the distribution of the pretreatment health provided that the health production function is in a special class and the price elasticity of health care is nondecreasing in the pretreatment health. Provided also that the demand for health care is own‐price inelastic, the same conclusion is obtained when the uncertainty is about the productivity of health care.     

Private Sector Influences on Monetary Policy in the United States

I examine the extent to which the Federal Reserve's monetary policy actions are correlated with the expressed wishes of private sector lobbying groups. I update and extend work by Havrilesky (1990, 1993) regarding the effect of signals from the banking industry through the Federal Advisory Council (FAC). I also construct a new database containing statements from non-financial interest groups. I find that monetary policy actions are correlated with signals from non-financial groups before 1979 but not after, and are correlated with signals from the FAC after 1979 but not before. I also find that the Fed's policy stance more closely matches the preferred stance of the banking industry after 1979.     

Accounting for the Private Finance Initiative in the United Kingdom National Health Service

This paper examines the operation of the UK government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) from the viewpoint of accounting in the National Health Service. It explores how the entity concept may be used to remove representation of the economic consequences of such schemes from public accounting reports. Illustrations are provided from the accounts of hospital NHS Trusts, with their high-value and politically sensitive capital projects. The paper provides contemporary evidence of the financial reporting of PFI schemes and the contradictions between the form and substance of these transactions.     

The Demand for Life Insurance in OECD Countries

This article examines the determinants of life insurance consumption in OECD countries. Consistent with previous results, we find a significant positive income elasticity of life insurance demand. Demand also increases with the number of dependents and level of education, and decreases with life expectancy and social security expenditure. The country's level of financial development and its insurance market's degree of competition appear to stimulate life insurance sales, whereas high inflation and real interest rates tend to decrease consumption. Overall, life insurance demand is better explained when the product market and socioeconomic factors are jointly considered. In addition, the use of GMM estimates helps reconcile our findings with previous puzzling results based on inconsistent OLS estimates given heteroscedasticity problems in the data.     

On the Demand for Portfolio Insurance

While insurers manage underwriting risk with various methods including reinsurance, insurers increasingly manage asset risk with options, futures, and other derivatives. Previous research shows that buyers of portfolio insurance pay considerably for downside protection. We add to this literature by providing the first evidence on the cost of portfolio insurance, the payoff to portfolio insurance, and the relative demand for portfolio insurance across VIX levels. We find that the demand for portfolio insurance is relatively high at low levels of VIX, suggesting purchasers demand more downside protection when this protection is cheap on an absolute basis (but expensive on a relative basis). We also provide the first evidence on the hedging behavior of specific investor classes and show that the demand for portfolio insurance is driven by retail investors (individuals) who buy costly insurance from institutional investors. Results are consistent with other types of paradoxical insurance‐buying behavior.     

The Impact of Regret on the Demand for Insurance

We examine optimal insurance purchase decisions of individuals that exhibit behavior consistent with Regret Theory. Our model incorporates a utility function that assigns a disutility to outcomes that are ex post suboptimal, and predicts that individuals with regret‐theoretical preferences adjust away from the extremes of full insurance and no insurance coverage. This prediction holds for both coinsurance and deductible contracts, and can explain the frequently observed preferences for low deductibles in markets for personal insurance.     

The Demand for Health Insurance in the Group Setting: Can You Always Get What You Want?

To what extent do health benefits obtained in the employment‐based setting reflect individual preferences? We examine this question by comparing the relationship between person‐level characteristics and the plans they obtain in a group setting to the relationship observed in the individual insurance market, using data from the 1996‐1997 and 1998‐1999 Community Tracking Study's Household Surveys. We also examine the effect of unions on group choice. Our structural models of the demand for insurance indicate that plans obtained in the group setting often reflect underlying individual preferences for insurance, but we consistently observe significantly different effects of ethnicity and unionization.     

Will Private Health Insurance Make the Distribution of Public Health Subsidies More Equal? The Case of India

This paper assesses the impact of the entry of private players in the health insurance market on the size of the insurance market and the distribution of public health subsidies on health care provision in India. Simulation results presented in the paper suggest that the redistributive effect is small when richer groups have privileged access to public facilities.     

Exclusions and the Demand for Property Insurance

The paper examines property insurance contracts in which consumers choose the upper limit on coverage. Exclusions are of two types, and both reduce the demand for insurance of the included perils. A practical implication is that an insurer can raise the demand for fire insurance by offering an earthquake rider, and profit from the rider even when the premia are ceded in such a way that the rider does not raise profit directly. The results do not require assumptions about correlations between included and excluded losses, which is interesting because correlations are decisive in most of the other literature on background risk.     

Changes in Background Risk and the Demand for Insurance

The demand for insurance against loss from a particular risky asset is likely to depend on other risks the decision-maker faces. For independently distributed other risks, referred to as background risk, Eeckhoudt and Kimball [1992] determine the effect on insurance demand of introducing background risk. Recently, Eeckhoudt, Gollier, and Schlesinger [1996] determine conditions on preferences such that first- and second-degree stochastic deteriorations in background risk lead to a decrease in the decision-maker's willingness to accept other risks. These results, although formulated in a general decision model, also apply to insurance demand. This article continues analysis of this question by determining the effect on insurance demand of several other general changes in background risk.     

中国农业居民医疗保险需求及其影响因素分析

本文基于2006年的微观横截面数据,运用似不相关二维probit模型与工具变量,分析了我国农业居民医疗保险需求及其影响因素,并着重考察了新型农村合作医疗保险与商业医疗保险之间的关系。研究的主要结论是：（1）参加新型农村合作医疗对乡村农业居民购买商业医疗保险有较显著的刺激作用;（2）教育水平、年龄、居住省份、职业对乡村农业居民是否参加新型农村合作医疗有显著影响;职业、家庭规模和地区经济发展水平对乡村农业居民是否购买商业医疗保险有显著影响;（3）在乡村农业居民是否参加新型农村合作医疗的决策中观测到逆向选择的行为。     

An Examination of the Demand for Life Insurance

For almost 50 years researchers have sought to explain consumer behavior concerning the purchase of life insurance. This study examines the literature relating to specific demographic and economic factors that may be identifiable as traits influencing the demand for life insurance, and discusses general environmental issues that may relate to life insurance demand. By organizing the wealth of literature in a useful and systematic format, noting consistencies and contradictions, this examination seeks to provide a better understanding of how and why life insurance purchases are made.     

到美国上市要准备什么

公司是否有显著的、具有持续性的销售增长?公司需具有快速增长的业绩或在市场中的独特地位.近年来越来越多的创业阶段的各国企业虽不具有长期的历史业绩,但因为拥有对某一市场的领先地位或对自然资源的独家占有权,也能够成功地在美国融资.     

惊鸿一瞥——美国就是美国

老美的赌场挺和谐拉斯维加斯,是沙漠里的赌城,也是全世界赌徒向往的圣地。博彩业是拉斯维加斯的支柱产业之一,赌场是这里的独特风景。一说到赌场,我们中国人不免会联想到昏暗吵杂的环境,各色赌徒们吆三喝四,输红了眼的倒霉蛋卖房卖地卖儿卖     

台湾地区“全民健康保险”制度对癌症患者医疗保障的启示

癌症多年来占据疾病死因顺位榜首,不仅严重威胁居民的健康和生命,更让患者面临较大的医疗费用支付压力。本文介绍了我国台湾地区全民健康保险制度在癌症患者医疗保障方面的特点,包括通过免除个人部分负担等措施为癌症患者提供经济协助、为癌症终末期患者提供安宁疗护、实行卫生技术评估、开展全民健康保险信息化建设。台湾地区的经验为改善癌症患者医疗保障带来以下启示:提高现行社会医疗保险对癌症相关医疗费用支付的待遇;推动社区开展癌症的慢性病管理;利用卫生技术评估匹配癌症治疗新药及新技术的医保准入与定价;以信息化建设助力肿瘤诊疗。