经济政策不确定性对人寿保险需求的影响

根据背景风险理论推测,经济政策不确定性作为一类不可保的宏观政策风险,可能对保险需求变动产生影响。本文利用Baker等(2013)测算的中国经济政策不确定性指数,实证检验了经济政策不确定性对中国各省人寿保险需求变动的影响,以及在不同异质性条件下的影响差异。结果发现:第一,经济政策不确定性对寿险需求有显著正影响,且其在经济周期的不同阶段存在显著差异;第二,教育水平的提升会一定程度促进经济政策不确定性对寿险需求的正影响;第三,经济政策不确定性对不同类型寿险需求的影响存在差异,具有保障功能的普通寿险和投资收益灵活稳健的万能险需求受到显著正影响;最后,经济政策不确定性对人寿保险保费增长的影响主要集中在新单保费。因此,政府部门应在保证经济政策连贯性的同时,提升民众的教育水平和避险意识,引导其主动购买保险,尽量降低政策波动产生的影响,分类推进不同类型人寿保险市场的扩大。     

The Demand for Life Insurance: An Application of the Economics of Uncertainty

Financial economists typically assume that capital income uncertainty, derived from investments in uncertain returned marketable securities, represents the major source of household consumption uncertainty. But, for many households, if not most, labor income uncertainty dominates capital income uncertainty. This study analyzes households optimal reactions to labor income (human capital) uncertainty that is derived from the possibility of their wage earners' non–survival. By introducing a risk resolution mechanism—an insurance market—and allowing for the possibility that future tastes may be state–dependent, simple demand–for–insurance equations are mathematically derived to explicitly describe households optimal responses to human capital uncertainty.     

Background Uncertainty and the Demand for Insurance Against Insurable Risks

Theory suggests that people facing higher uninsurable background risk buy more insurance against other risks that are insurable. This proposition is supported by Italian cross-sectional data. It is shown that the probability of purchasing casualty insurance increases with earnings uncertainty. This finding is consistent with consumer preferences being characterized by decreasing absolute prudence.     

The Aggregate Demand for Private Health Insurance Coverage in the United States

This article estimates the aggregate demand for private health insurance coverage in the United States using an error correction model for the period 1966–1999. Both short- and long-run price and income elasticities of demand are estimated. The empirical findings indicate that both private insurance enrollment and the completeness of insurance are relatively inelastic with respect to changes in price and income in the short and long run. Moreover, the results suggest that an increase in the number cyclically and frictionally uninsured generates less welfare loss than an increase in the number of structurally uninsured.     

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.     

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 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.     

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.     

货币政策的保险需求传导效应——基于中国的实证研究

选取2000年1月至2010年12月的月度数据,运用单位根检验、协整关系检验和格兰杰因果关系检验等当代主流的计量经济学研究方法,建立结构向量自回归模型(SVAR),并运用脉冲响应函数对我国货币政策保险需求渠道的运作机制和传导效果进行深层次的长期静态分析和短期动态分析。实证结果表明我国货币政策的保险需求传导机制是存在的。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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。     

保险需求价格弹性与保险监管政策选择

通过对保险费率和保险金额进行线性回归得出两个命题:保险需求与保险产品的价格负相关;保险产品缺乏价格需求弹性。这两个命题的适应条件分别是:保险产品是正常商品和相对封闭的市场上的一类保险产品的总需求。因此,保险公司要在保险费率和保险总收入之间均衡,而保险监管则要建立在协调保险价格和受众群体利益均衡的基础之上。     

影响我国保险业的需求因素分析

本文从经济发展水平、产业结构、所有制结构、经济增长方式、经济运行方式、社会收入结构、社会支出结构、人口结构和居民金融资产九个影响保险业需求的因素着手,运用一元线性回归和因子分析法对我国1985-2007年的资料进行实证研究。实证表明,各影响因素与保费收入存在线性相关关系,且影响我国保险业的主要需求因素是经济发展、科技发展和社会发展。     

The Effects of Uncertainty on the Informativeness of Earnings: Evidence from the Insurance Industry in the Wake of Catastrophic Events

This study examines the effects of uncertainty associated with large-scale catastrophes on the informativeness of earnings announcements by property and casualty insurers. It contributes to the literature on the effects of uncertainty on the informativeness of earnings announcements by distinguishing between: (1) uncertainty due to exogenous events that obscure the firm's future prospects, and (2) uncertainty due to noise in earnings. Results suggest that heightened uncertainty associated with exposure to catastrophe losses is significantly positively associated with the market's response to earnings reports, even after controlling for uncertainty due to noise in earnings. This implies that during periods of high uncertainty, investors find earnings information more useful in assessing the future prospects of the firm.     

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.     

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。     

The Health Insurance Reform Debate

This article provides an overview of the U.S. health care reform debate and legislation, with a focus on health insurance. Following a synopsis of the main problems that confront U.S. health care and insurance, it outlines the health care reform bills in the U.S. House and Senate as of early December 2009, including the key provisions for expanding and regulating health insurance, and projections of the proposals' costs, funding, and impact on the number of people with insurance. The article then discusses (1) the potential effects of the mandate that individuals have health insurance in conjunction with proposed premium subsidies and health insurance underwriting and rating restrictions, (2) the proposed creation of a public health insurance plan and/or nonprofit cooperatives, and (3) provisions that would modify permissible grounds for health policy rescission and repeal the limited antitrust exemption for health and medical liability insurance. It concludes by contrasting the reform bills with market-oriented proposals and with brief perspective on future developments.     

中国保险需求的横截面数据计量分析

对中国保险市场需求进行了横截面数据的经济计量实证分析,创新之处在于解释变量中保险价格变量的替代变量及表示经济风．险程度变量的替代变量的选取,实证结果表明这些替代变量是很有意义的。