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Hidden insurance in a moral-hazard economy

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  • Giuseppe Bertola
  • Winfried Koeniger

Abstract

type="main"> We analyze the general equilibrium of an economy in which a competitive industry produces nonexclusive insurance services. The equilibrium is inefficient because insurance contracts cannot control moral hazard, and welfare can be improved by policies that reduce insurance by increasing its price above marginal cost. We discuss how insurance production costs that exceed expected claim payments interact with moral hazard in determining the equilibrium's inefficiency, and show that these costs can make insurance premia so actuarially unfair as to validate the standard first-order conditions we exploit in our analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Bertola & Winfried Koeniger, 2015. "Hidden insurance in a moral-hazard economy," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(4), pages 777-790, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:randje:v:46:y:2015:i:4:p:777-790
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1756-2171.12110
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    Cited by:

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    2. Loss, Frédéric & Piaser, Gwenaël, 2019. "Linear price equilibria in a non-exclusive insurance market," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 22-30.
    3. Bertola, Giuseppe & Koeniger, Winfried, 2014. "On the validity of the first-order approach with moral hazard and hidden assets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 402-405.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

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