Moral Hazard and Health Insurance When Treatment Is Preventive

We consider a two‐period model under moral hazard when treatment is preventive. In the second period, the treatment level under moral hazard is higher than that under no moral hazard. However, it may be lower than that under moral hazard when overinsurance is not allowed. In the first period, the treatment level is higher when treatment is preventive than when it is not. Treatment level is also higher as the discount factor increases. We demonstrate that a treatment increase following a coverage increase does not necessarily imply moral hazard. These findings imply that moral hazard is possibly overemphasized in the literature.     

存在道德风险的医院等级选择与最优公共医疗保险合同

通过构造一个医疗服务系统的均衡模型,分析了医院等级、居民道德风险与最优公共医疗保险合同之间的关系。研究表明只存在公共医疗保险体系时,如果政府部门之间缺乏协调机制,各自为政,中国的公共医疗保险支付方式将不能实现社会最优并消除道德风险;公共医疗保险合同可能引起社会福利的损失或引致道德风险。政府应该完善医院评价系统,对不同医院的水平给予准确的评级,特别是要建立起政府各部门之间的协调机制;理顺医疗服务价格体系;鼓励更多市场参与主体进入医疗保险领域,建立合理的疾病风险分担机制。     

On Optimal Insurance in the Presence of Moral Hazard

This paper expounds on the importance of identifiabilty of subjective probabilities in agency theory with moral hazard. An application to insurance is examined.     

Deposit Insurance and Forbearance Under Moral Hazard

We study the efficacy of forbearance using a real options approach. Our model endogenizes moral hazard embedded in credit risk undertaken by the bank. The bank's interest rate risk is modeled as duration mismatch. Other modeling improvements over previous studies include such features as stochastic interest rates and deposits, continuous interest payments on an ongoing deposit portfolio, and a stochastic forbearance period. We find that the bank does have an incentive to engage in undue risk taking. Even in the presence of moral hazard, however, forbearance can still be a desirable course of action in reducing the FDIC's expected liability. In addition, the capital ratio plays an extremely important role in determining the fair insurance premium. Finally, using the mismatch of asset and deposit durations as the correct measurement of interest rate risk, our model reveals that an optimal asset variance may exist for a particular bank, contrary to what the contingent claims framework would predict. Therefore, we resolve the puzzle that banks in practice do not increase asset risk to take full advantage of the limited liability.     

Ex Post Moral Hazard and Bayesian Learning in Insurance

We study a dynamic insurance market with asymmetric information and ex post moral hazard. In our model, the insurance buyer's risk type is unknown to the insurer; moreover, the buyer has the option of not reporting losses. The insurer sets premia according to the buyer's experience rating, computed via Bayesian estimation based on buyer's history of reported claims. Accordingly, the buyer has strategic incentive to withhold information about losses. We construct an insurance market information equilibrium model and show that a variety of reporting strategies are possible. The results are illustrated with explicit computations in a two‐period risk‐neutral case study.     

Deposit Insurance, Moral Hazard and Market Monitoring

The paper analyses the relationship between deposit insurance, debt-holder monitoring, and risk taking. In a stylised banking model we show that deposit insurance may reduce moral hazard, if deposit insurance credibly leaves out non-deposit creditors. Testing the model using EU bank level data yields evidence consistent with the model, suggesting that explicit deposit insurance may serve as a commitment device to limit the safety net and permit monitoring by uninsured subordinated debt holders. We further find that credible limits to the safety net reduce risk taking of smaller banks with low charter values and sizeable subordinated debt shares only. However, we also find that the introduction of explicit deposit insurance tends to increase the share of insured deposits in banks' liabilities.     

Moral Hazard and Optimal Subsidiary Structure for Financial Institutions

Banks and related financial institutions often have two separate subsidiaries that make loans of similar type but differing risk, for example, a bank and a finance company, or a “good bank/bad bank” structure. Such “bipartite” structures may prevent risk shifting, in which banks misuse their flexibility in choosing and monitoring loans to exploit their debt holders. By “insulating” safer loans from riskier loans, a bipartite structure reduces risk‐shifting incentives in the safer subsidiary. Bipartite structures are more likely to dominate unitary structures as the downside from riskier loans is higher or as expected profits from the efficient loan mix are lower.     

责任保险:市场失灵、立法强制与道德风险管理

责任保险看起来能够解决安全事故受害者的补偿问题,但单靠市场力量很难形成有规模的责任保险交易.为保证对受害人的赔偿,政府可以在一些关乎百姓生存权的领域实行强制责任保险.不幸的是,强制责任保险会带来被保险人(致害人)的道德风险问题,从而可能降低整个社会的安全水平.鉴于保险人控制被保险人(致害人)道德风险的目标与社会安全目标的一致性,政府和社会应该允许保险人使用社会已有的风险监控系统、支持建立有效的信息共享系统、给予保险人拒绝承保的权利以及由保险人对特殊行业进行强制风险监控.     

创业企业中的双边道德风险与最优融资合约

创业家和创业资本家都付出不可观察的努力来提高企业的效率,创业企业面临双边道德风险.本文解释了创业企业融资合约中常见的可转换证券的融资安排.当创业家和创业资本家的联合努力有助于提高项目的收益时,双方的努力程度与投资的数量相关.论文证明当投资者的投资比例低时,她必须被赋予普通股,而当其投资比例高时,她获得可转换债券或优先股.此外,通过比较三种创业投资市场结构下最优合约的特征,本文表明在创业投资市场中,垄断比竞争更能有效率地控制双向道德风险.     

实行显性存款保险制度的必要性和可行性分析

无论隐性和显性存款保险制度,在增强公众信心,维护金融体系稳定的同时,都增加了银行的道德风险。从隐性存款保险制度向显性存款保险制度转变是否具有可行性?本文从银行的特许权价值、显性存款保险的可信性、被保险存款占负债总额的比例、“大而不倒”的现实性、不良贷款水平等角度分析这一转变过程中银行道德风险的变化。     

Optimal Contracts Under Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard: A Continuous-Time Approach

This article presents a continuous-time agency model in thepresence of adverse selection and moral hazard with a risk-averseagent and a risk-neutral principal. Under the model setup, weshow that the optimal controls are constant over time, and thusthe optimal menu consists of contracts that are linear in thefinal outcome. We also show that when a moral hazard problemadds to an adverse selection problem, the monotonicity conditionwell known in the pure adverse selection literature needs tobe modified to ensure the incentive compatibility for informationrevelation. The model is applied to a few managerial compensationproblems involving managerial project selection and capitalbudgeting decisions. We argue that in the third-best world,the relationship between the volatility of the outcome and thesensitivity of the contract depends on interactions betweenthe managerial cost and the firm’s production functions.Contrary to conventional wisdom, sometimes the higher the volatility,the higher the sensitivity of the contract. The firm receivinggood news sometimes chooses safer projects or invests less thanit does with bad news. We also examine the effects of the observabilityof the volatility on corporate investment decisions.     

Health Care Reform,Efficiency of Health Insurers,and Optimal Health Insurance Markets

This research examines the efficiency of the U.S. health insurers. It shows that more insurers are less efficient than in the previous sample year; however, the results suggest that the federal health care reform has no significant effect on the overall efficiency of all insurers as a whole, which is very low but does not change much over time. This research explores how to improve the efficiency of the health insurance market by proposing state, regional, and national efficiency-based goal-oriented market models and an efficiency duplicating system, and it discusses important implications to the health care compacts, the health insurance exchanges or marketplaces, and the national multistate programs. It also analyzes further moves for efficiency enhancement with regard to payment methods and the health care delivery system. One interesting finding is that the Medicaid program is very efficient because it provides support to the offering of Medicaid coverage and further expansion, which enhances the health welfare of society with fewer resources inputs from the perspective of efficiency. This research should provide important insights for state and federal governments, policy makers, regulators, the health insurance industry, and consumers.     

A Game‐Theoretical Interpretation of Guaranteed Renewability in Health Insurance

A game‐theoretical model is developed here that can explain why the premiums of the health insurance contracts in the individual health insurance market do not vary that much over time, even in absence of any legal restriction on premiums. In this model the insurer and the individuals interact for an infinite number of periods, and the threats of punishments in case of deviations force both the insurer and the individuals to stay on a constant premium path. This model, unlike the other models of guaranteed renewability, does not presume commitment of the insurer.     

Moral Hazard,portfolio allocation,and asset returns for thrift institutions

This article examines the earnings performance of nontraditional assets allowed to thrifts since the early 1980s. It uses the statistical cost accounting methodology developed by Hester and Zoellner to estimate average returns on thrift portfolio investments for the years ending June 30, 1987 and June 30, 1988. Results show that average returns on land loans, service corporation investment, real estate investment, and commercial loans were significantly lower than returns on more traditional assets. The results are far more pronounced at capital deficient institutions, lending support to the hypothesis that they used nontraditional investments as a means of exploiting the deposit insurance system. Returns on nontraditional assets are significantly affected by geographic factors, even for well capitalized institutions. The article concludes with an evaluation of the reimposition of portfolio restrictions on thrifts by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. George Benston, Tom Fomby, Allen Berger, John Wolken, and anonymous referees made numerous constructive suggestions.     

Self‐Insurance and Self‐Protection as Public Goods

Many public goods provide utility by insuring against hazardous events. Those public goods can have self‐insurance and self‐protection character. For both situations we analyze the efficient public provision level and the provision level resulting from Nash behavior in a private provision game. We consider the interaction of public goods as insurance devices with market insurance. The availability of market insurance reduces the provision level of the public good for both public and private provision, regardless of whether we consider self‐insurance or self‐protection. Moreover, we show that Nash behavior has always a larger impact than the availability of market insurance.     

国外对金融道德风险研究的前沿理论及防范经验

近年来,金融道德风险已成为我国金融业运行中的突出问题。本文在论述国外对金融道德风险研究前沿理论的基础上,进一步比较了美国、欧盟、日本、韩国、新西兰、中国台湾等主要国家或地区对金融道德风险的防范经验,总结出可供我国借鉴的启示,对提高我国金融道德风险的防范水平、维护金融稳定、确保金融安全运行具有重要的参考意义。