IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v74y2019ics0167487019302235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of past health events on intentions to purchase insurance: Evidence from 11 countries

Author

Listed:
  • Innocenti, Stefania
  • Clark, Gordon L.
  • McGill, Sarah
  • Cuñado, Juncal

Abstract

We investigate whether past negative health experiences are positively associated with intentions to purchase insurance to mitigate the risks of income losses due to illnesses and disabilities. Using an original survey based upon representative samples of working individuals in 11 countries, we show that agents who have personally experienced a negative health event in the past are 25% more likely to state the intention to purchase income protection insurance than those who have not had such an experience. Moreover, personally knowing someone who suffered from ill health increases intentions by 40%. Insurance ownership increases by 23% due to personal experience and by 31% because of vicarious experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Innocenti, Stefania & Clark, Gordon L. & McGill, Sarah & Cuñado, Juncal, 2019. "The effect of past health events on intentions to purchase insurance: Evidence from 11 countries," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:74:y:2019:i:c:s0167487019302235
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2019.102204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487019302235
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joep.2019.102204?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annamaria Lusardi & Daniel Schneider & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Financially Fragile Households: Evidence and Implications," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 83-150.
    2. Kettlewell, Nathan, 2019. "Risk preference dynamics around life events," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 66-84.
    3. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S Mitchelli, 2007. "Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 42(1), pages 35-44, January.
    4. Cristian Badarinza & John Y. Campbell & Tarun Ramadorai, 2016. "International Comparative Household Finance," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 111-144, October.
    5. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2011. "Individual Risk Attitudes: Measurement, Determinants, And Behavioral Consequences," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 522-550, June.
    6. Tennyson, Sharon & Yang, Hae Kyung, 2014. "The role of life experience in long-term care insurance decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 175-188.
    7. Kunreuther, Howard, 1996. "Mitigating Disaster Losses through Insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 12(2-3), pages 171-187, May.
    8. repec:cup:judgdm:v:3:y:2008:i:7:p:493-500 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia Mitchell, 2006. "Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education Programs," Working Papers wp144, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. Howard Kunreuther & Erwann Michel-Kerjan, 2015. "Demand for fixed-price multi-year contracts: Experimental evidence from insurance decisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 171-194, October.
    11. George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue & Matthew Rabin, 2003. "Projection Bias in Predicting Future Utility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1209-1248.
    12. Howard Kunreuther & Mark Pauly, 2004. "Neglecting Disaster: Why Don't People Insure Against Large Losses?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 5-21, January.
    13. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    14. Ulrike Malmendier & Stefan Nagel, 2011. "Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk Taking?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(1), pages 373-416.
    15. Rustichini, Aldo & DeYoung, Colin G. & Anderson, Jon E. & Burks, Stephen V., 2016. "Toward the integration of personality theory and decision theory in explaining economic behavior: An experimental investigation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 122-137.
    16. Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan, 2010. "Catastrophe Economics: The National Flood Insurance Program," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 165-186, Fall.
    17. Tian Zhou‐Richter & Mark J. Browne & Helmut Gründl, 2010. "Don't They Care? Or, Are They Just Unaware? Risk Perception and the Demand for Long‐Term Care Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 715-747, December.
    18. Susan Christopherson, 2002. "Project Work in Context: Regulatory Change and the New Geography of Media," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(11), pages 2003-2015, November.
    19. Kim, Young-Il & Lee, Jungmin, 2014. "The long-run impact of a traumatic experience on risk aversion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 174-186.
    20. Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 1999. "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198742005, Decembrie.
    21. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2018. "Time varying risk aversion," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(3), pages 403-421.
    22. Puri, Manju & Robinson, David T., 2007. "Optimism and economic choice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 71-99, October.
    23. Rui Mata & Renato Frey & David Richter & Jürgen Schupp & Ralph Hertwig, 2018. "Risk Preference: A View from Psychology," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 155-172, Spring.
    24. Oster, Emily & Shoulson, Ira & Quaid, Kimberly & Dorsey, E. Ray, 2010. "Genetic adverse selection: Evidence from long-term care insurance and Huntington disease," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 1041-1050, December.
    25. Bucciol, Alessandro & Zarri, Luca, 2015. "The shadow of the past: Financial risk taking and negative life events," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-16.
    26. Bhattacharya, Jay & Goldman, Dana & Sood, Neeraj, 2009. "Market evidence of misperceived mortality risk," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 451-462, October.
    27. Pauly, Mark V, 1990. "The Rational Nonpurchase of Long-term-Care Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(1), pages 153-168, February.
    28. Justin Gallagher, 2014. "Learning about an Infrequent Event: Evidence from Flood Insurance Take-Up in the United States," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 206-233, July.
    29. Ferdinand M. Vieider & Mathieu Lefebvre & Ranoua Bouchouicha & Thorsten Chmura & Rustamdjan Hakimov & Michal Krawczyk & Peter Martinsson, 2015. "Common Components Of Risk And Uncertainty Attitudes Across Contexts And Domains: Evidence From 30 Countries," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 421-452, June.
    30. Slovic, Paul & Finucane, Melissa & Peters, Ellen & MacGregor, Donald G., 2002. "Rational actors or rational fools: implications of the affect heuristic for behavioral economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 329-342.
    31. Gennaro Bernile & Vineet Bhagwat & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2017. "What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters and CEO Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 167-206, February.
    32. Eldad Yechiam & Greg Barron & Ido Erev, 2005. "The Role of Personal Experience in Contributing to Different Patterns of Response to Rare Terrorist Attacks," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(3), pages 430-439, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriela Mihaela Mure?an & Cristian Mihai Dragos & Codru?a Mare & Simona Laura Dragos & Alexandra Pintea, 2021. "Socio-Economic and Macro-Financial Determinants and Spatial Effects on European Private Health Insurance Markets," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(56), pages 290-290, February.
    2. Clark Gordon L, 2021. "The Significance of Financial Competence and Risk Tolerance in Home-Related Expenditure by Jurisdiction and Regime," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 12-27, March.
    3. Gianluca Vagnani & Francesco Mazzurco, 2022. "Incidental Negative Life Events and the Disposition Effect at the Individual Level," Journal of Finance and Investment Analysis, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 11(2), pages 1-1.
    4. El Halabi, Malak & Chan, Wing Yan Florence & Tunca, Burak & Ziano, Ignazio & Feldman, Gilad, 2022. "Replication: Unsuccessful replications and extensions of Temporal Value Asymmetry in monetary valuation and moral judgment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armando N. Meier, 2021. "Emotions and Risk Attitudes," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1118, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Armando N. Meier, 2019. "Emotions, Risk Attitudes, and Patience," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1041, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Mol, Jantsje M. & Botzen, W.J. Wouter & Blasch, Julia E., 2020. "Behavioral motivations for self-insurance under different disaster risk insurance schemes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 967-991.
    4. Gennaro Bernile & Vineet Bhagwat & Ambrus Kecskés & Phuong‐Anh Nguyen, 2021. "Are the risk attitudes of professional investors affected by personal catastrophic experiences?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 455-486, June.
    5. Jetter, Michael & Magnusson, Leandro M. & Roth, Sebastian, 2020. "Becoming sensitive: Males’ risk and time preferences after the 2008 financial crisis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Sepahvand, Mohammad H & Shahbazian, Roujman & Bali Swain, Ranjula, 2018. "Does revolution change risk attitudes? Evidence from Burkina Faso," Working Paper Series 2019:2, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    7. Ayton, Peter & Bernile, Gennaro & Bucciol, Alessandro & Zarri, Luca, 2020. "The impact of life experiences on risk taking," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Gathergood, John & Wylie, Daniel, 2018. "Why are some households so poorly insured?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 1-12.
    9. Hetschko, Clemens & Preuss, Malte, 2020. "Income in jeopardy: How losing employment affects the willingness to take risks," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Bucciol, Alessandro & Hu, Alessio & Zarri, Luca, 2019. "The effects of prior outcomes on managerial risk taking: Evidence from Italian professional soccer," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 75(PB).
    11. Arman ESHRAGHI & TAKAHASHI Hidetomo & XU Peng, 2021. "Early-Life War Experiences and Corporate Financial Outcomes," Discussion papers 21081, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Fang, Guanfu & Li, Wei & Zhu, Ying, 2022. "The shadow of the epidemic: Long-term impacts of meningitis exposure on risk preference and behaviors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    13. Alessandro Bucciol & Alessio Hu & Luca Zarri, 2017. "The Effects of Prior Shocks on Managerial Risk Taking: Evidence from Italian Professional Soccer," Working Papers 17/2017, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    14. Park, WooRam & Kim, Yongmi, 2022. "Air pollution and risk preference," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 566-579.
    15. M. Martin Boyer & Philippe De Donder & Claude Denys Fluet & Marie-Louise Leroux & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2018. "A Canadian Parlor Room-Type Approach to the Long-Term Care Insurance Puzzle," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-13, CIRANO.
    16. Jin, Miao & Liu, Yu-Jane & Meng, Juanjuan, 2019. "Fat-finger event and risk-taking behavior," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 126-143.
    17. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2017. "Financial literacy, present bias and alternative mortgage products," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 58-83.
    18. Martin Boyer & Philippe De Donder & Claude Fluet & Marie-Louise Leroux & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2017. "Long-Term Care Insurance: Knowledge Barriers, Risk Perception and Adverse Selection," NBER Working Papers 23918, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Dahmann, Sarah C. & Kettlewell, Nathan & Lam, Jack, 2022. "Parental Separation and the Formation of Economic Preferences," IZA Discussion Papers 14993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Mark J. Browne & Annette Hofmann & Andreas Richter & Sophie-Madeleine Roth & Petra Steinorth, 2021. "Peer effects in risk preferences: Evidence from Germany," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 299(1), pages 1129-1163, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Learning; Experience; Survey; Insurance purchasing intentions; Vulnerability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:74:y:2019:i:c:s0167487019302235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.