Optimal Insurance Design: What Can We Do With and Without Expected Utility?

Author(s):  
Christian Gollier
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Birghila ◽  
Tim J. Boonen ◽  
Mario Ghossoub

Author(s):  
Nathaniel Hendren

Abstract The willingness to pay for insurance captures the value of insurance against only the risk that remains when choices are observed. This article develops tools to measure the ex ante expected utility impact of insurance subsidies and mandates when choices are observed after some insurable information is revealed. The approach retains the transparency of using reduced-form willingness to pay and cost curves, but it adds one additional sufficient statistic: the percentage difference in marginal utilities between insured and uninsured. I provide an approach to estimate this additional statistic that uses only the reduced-form willingness to pay curve, combined with a measure of risk aversion. I compare the approach to structural approaches that require fully specifying the choice environment and information sets of individuals. I apply the approach using existing willingness to pay and cost curve estimates from the low-income health insurance exchange in Massachusetts. Ex ante optimal insurance prices are roughly 30% lower than prices that maximize observed market surplus. While mandates reduce market surplus, the results suggest they would actually increase ex ante expected utility.


2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Bernard ◽  
Xuedong He ◽  
Jia-An Yan ◽  
Xun Yu Zhou

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liurui Deng

Based on Bernard et al.’s research, we focus on the Pareto optimal insurance design with the insured’s Rank-Dependent Expected Utility (RDEU). Compared with their previous work, our novelties are the more general fixed cost function of the insurer and the discussion of adverse selection and moral hazard. In particular, Bernard et al. only consider the case in which the fixed cost function of handling an indemnity is the linear function. However, the fixed cost function is not just linear functions in real insurance market. So, we explore the more general fixed cost function including both the linear and nonlinear functions. On the other hand, we consider adverse selection and moral hazard which are involved by Bernard et al. Leading adverse selection and moral hazard into our research makes our results more practical and meaningful. Moreover, we provide an insight into the sensitivity of an optimal solution for the insured’s initial wealth and the parameters related to the fixed cost function of handling an indemnity. We further compare the two different utility functions of the insured in terms of influence of optimal policy analysis.


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