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Estimating Welfare in Insurance Markets Using Variation in Prices

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Author Info
Liran Einav
Amy Finkelstein
Mark R. Cullen
Abstract

We show how standard consumer and producer theory can be used to estimate welfare in insurance markets with selection. The key observation is that the same price variation needed to identify the demand curve also identifies how costs vary as market participants endogenously respond to price. With estimates of both the demand and cost curves, welfare analysis is straightforward. We illustrate our approach by applying it to the employee health insurance choices at Alcoa, Inc. We detect adverse selection in this setting but estimate that its quantitative welfare implications are small, and not obviously remediable by standard public policy tools.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14414.

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Date of creation: Oct 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14414

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Estimation
C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Personal Finance
D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

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  14. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1987. "The Causes and Consequences of the Dependence of Quality on Price," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-48, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Jaap H. Abbring & Pierre-André Chiappori & Jean Pinquet, 2003. "Moral Hazard and Dynamic Insurance Data," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 767-820, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Raj Chetty, 2008. "Moral Hazard versus Liquidity and Optimal Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(2), pages 173-234, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Gruber, Jonathan, 1994. "The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 622-41, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-90, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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