The supreme struggle: ‘Obamacare’ and the new limits of federal regulation

On June 28, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected legal challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ‘Obamacare,’ by a vote of 5-4. In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), a majority of the justices affirmed Congress's power to expand Medicaid and impose an individual mandate requiring people to obtain health insurance or face increasing tax penalties. The Court's decision was widely condemned as a dramatic expansion of federal power that threatened state sovereignty and individual liberty. The Court was heavily criticized for betraying the principles of federalism and limited government in the U.S. Constitution. The harshest criticism was reserved for Chief Justice John Roberts, a Republican appointee who—though considered a conservative justice—authored the Court's opinion and cast the critical deciding vote to uphold the Act. In reality, far from dramatically expanding federal power, the Court's decision placed groundbreaking limits on Congress's power to regulate commerce and use federal funds to pressure states into doing its bidding. These aspects of the Court's decision received less attention in the popular media, but may actually prove to have a more significant impact on the scope of federal regulation in the future. This installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner explains how those aspects of the Court's decision place new limits on the nature and scope of federal regulation.     

Organisational citizenship behaviours and effectiveness: an empirical study in two small insurance companies

The study relates six dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) at the branch level with several indicators of the effectiveness of 38 branches of two insurance companies. Results suggest that the branches where employees display more OCB are the most effective. These findings are discussed in the context of a scarcity of empirical studies on the topic, despite researchers' assumption that OCB enhances team and organisational effectiveness.     

Adoption of weather‐index insurance: learning from willingness to pay among a panel of households in rural Ethiopia

In this article we examine which farmers would be early entrants into weather‐index insurance markets in Ethiopia, were such markets to develop on a large scale. We do this by examining the determinants of willingness to pay for weather insurance among 1,400 Ethiopian households that have been tracked for 15 years as part of the Ethiopian Rural household Survey. This provides both historical and current information with which to assess the determinants of demand. We find that educated, wealthier individuals are more likely to purchase insurance. Risk aversion is associated with low insurance take‐up suggesting that models of technology adoption can inform the purchase and spread of weather index insurance. We also assess how willingness to pay varied as two key characteristics of the contract were varied and found that basis risk reduces demand for insurance particularly when the price of the contract is high, and that provision of insurance through groups is preferred by female headed households and individuals with lower levels of education.     

Managing basis risk with multiscale index insurance

Agricultural index insurance indemnifies a farmer against losses based on an index that is correlated with, but not identical to, her or his individual outcomes. In practice, the level of correlation may be modest, exposing insured farmers to residual, basis risk. In this article, we study the impact of basis risk on the demand for index insurance under risk and compound risk aversion. We simulate the impact of basis risk on the demand for index insurance by Malian cotton farmers using data from field experiments that reveal the distributions of risk and compound risk aversion. The analysis shows that compound risk aversion depresses demand for a conventional index insurance contract some 13 percentage points below what would be predicted based on risk aversion alone. We then analyze an innovative multiscale index insurance contract that reduces basis risk relative to conventional, single‐scale index insurance contract. Simulations indicate that demand for this multiscale contract would be some 40% higher than the demand for an equivalently priced conventional contract in the population of Malian cotton farmers. Finally, we report and discuss the actual uptake of a multiscale contract introduced in Mali.     

女策性农业保险：理论演进与制度安排

本文梳理了政策性农业保险的理论研究的进展,分析了政策性农业保险制度安排的发展历程,在此基础上,为广东省的政策性农业保险改革实践和模式创新提出相应的意见和建议。     

我国水产养殖业保险发展特点、问题和建议

我国水产养殖保险处于起步阶段,产业间、地区间发展水平不一,商业保险和互助保险模式并存。水产养殖业具有投入高、产出高和风险高的特点,其发展迫切需要保险予以支持。水产养殖保险已经包含在农业保险体系中,各地也积累了水产养殖保险的部分经验并开展了相关技术研究。但该行业发展面临承保操作难度大、灾后查勘定损难、财政补贴体系尚不健全、道德风险防控难等挑战,需要从明确定位、完善体系、争取扶持、扩大试点、健全机制等方面加以解决。     

发展社区保险的路径选择——基于山东省9个地市调研数据的分析

影响社区居民的各种风险因素增加,成为商业保险促进和谐社区建设的一个重要突破口。本文以实地调研获得大量数据为基础,通过层次分析法对社区居民面临的健康和医疗、意外伤害、养老、财产损失、信用与责任等风险分析之后,认为居民风险分担需要商业保险的参与,进而通过灰色关联度分析法将影响社区居民保险需求的因素进行了分析,得出GDP、城镇居民家庭收入和城乡居民储蓄存款与居民需求密切相关的结论。在我国经济不断发展、社会保障多层次需要、居民保险意识逐步强化、商业保险供给能力日益提升的背景下,社区保险大有可为,发展广阔,必能与和谐社区建设相互促进、相得益彰。     

财产保险对国民经济总量和经济波动性的影响——基于套期保值模型与中国的实证

财产保险与国民经济之间存在何种内在联系一直是理论界探索的重要问题。文章创造性地将产险的套期保值原理与考虑了灾害损失的宏观经济模型相结合,得出了一定条件下财产保险对国民经济影响的数量模型。通过比较我国东、中、西部三个具有区域代表性省份的相关实证结果,进一步发现在前期投资功能受到限制的条件下,即使在区域特征明显的地区也呈现一个共同规律:尽管财产保险对经济总量不会产生明显影响,但对促进经济的平稳运行却能起到十分重要的作用。     

重大自然灾害资金筹措及其配置问题研究——源于汶川地震灾害的思考

5·12汶川地震给受灾地区人民生命财产造成了巨大损失,灾难过后,国家迅速筹措各方资金投入应急救灾、安置和灾后重建工作。赈灾筹资渠道应以国家财政角度、金融信贷角度、社会捐赠三方面为主,对赈灾资金筹措必须进行科学管理,完善管理办法。要充分发挥社会舆论监督作用,并从思想上正确认识各种筹资渠道在不同时期的主辅关系和作用,从而适时调整赈灾资金筹措策略和重点,实现赈灾资金筹措与需求的合理匹配。     

山西省农村社会保障水平研究

建立农村社会保障制度是解决"三农"问题、发展农村经济的重要保障.山西农村社会保障制度由农村社会养老保险、新型合作医疗、社会救助和社会福利等制度组成.对2005年山西省农村养老保险水平、新型合作医疗水平和最低保障水平进行定量分析,揭示目前农村社会保障水平偏低的现实,为进一步完善农村社会保障制度提供依据.