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Willingness-to-pay for parallel private health insurance: evidence from a laboratory experiment

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Listed:
  • Neil J. Buckley
  • Katherine Cuff
  • Jeremiah Hurley
  • Logan McLeod
  • Robert Nuscheler
  • David Cameron

Abstract

Debate over the effects of public versus private health care finance persists in both academic and policy circles. This paper presents the results of a revealed preference laboratory experiment that tests how characteristics of the public health system affect a subject's willingness-to-pay (WTP) for parallel private health insurance. Consistent with the theoretical predictions of Cuff et al. (2010), subjects' average WTP is lower and the size of the private insurance sector smaller when the public system allocates health care based on need rather than randomly and when the probability of receiving health care from the public system is high.

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  • Neil J. Buckley & Katherine Cuff & Jeremiah Hurley & Logan McLeod & Robert Nuscheler & David Cameron, 2012. "Willingness-to-pay for parallel private health insurance: evidence from a laboratory experiment," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 137-166, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cje:issued:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:137-166
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2011.01690.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Buckley, Neil J. & Cuff, Katherine & Hurley, Jeremiah & McLeod, Logan & Mestelman, Stuart & Cameron, David, 2012. "An experimental investigation of mixed systems of public and private health care finance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 713-729.
    2. Pfarr, Christian & Schmid, Andreas, 2013. "The political economics of social health insurance: the tricky case of individuals’ preferences," MPRA Paper 44534, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Raquel J. Fonseca & Luísa Cunha, 2020. "A net present value approach to health insurance choice," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 43(2), pages 709-724, December.
    4. Guidon Fenig & Mariya Mileva & Luba Petersen, 2013. "Asset Trading and Monetary Policy in Production Economies," Discussion Papers dp13-08, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, revised Aug 2014.
    5. Andreas Richter & Jörg Schiller & Harris Schlesinger, 2014. "Behavioral insurance: Theory and experiments," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 85-96, April.
    6. Xinyu Li & Christian Waibel, 2021. "Patients' free choice of physicians is not always good," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2751-2765, November.
    7. Luba Petersen & Guidon Fenig, 2015. "Distributing scarce jobs and output: Experimental evidence on the effects of rationing," Discussion Papers dp15-02, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    8. Mimra, Wanda & Nemitz, Janina & Waibel, Christian, 2020. "Voluntary pooling of genetic risk: A health insurance experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 864-882.
    9. Martina Grunow & Robert Nuscheler, 2014. "Public And Private Health Insurance In Germany: The Ignored Risk Selection Problem," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(6), pages 670-687, June.
    10. Wanda Mimra & Janina Nemitz & Christian Waibel, 2019. "Voluntary pooling of genetic risk: A health insurance experiment," Post-Print hal-02499086, HAL.
    11. Meliyanni Johar & Glenn Jones & Michael P. Keane & Elizabeth Savage & Olena Stavrunova, 2013. "The Demand for Private Health Insurance: Do Waiting Lists Matter?” – Revisited," Economics Papers 2013-W09, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    12. Guidon Fenig & Luba Petersen, 2017. "Distributing scarce jobs and output: experimental evidence on the dynamic effects of rationing," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(3), pages 707-735, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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