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Full Insurance, Asymmetric Information and Genetic Testing

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Author Info
José Penalva
Abstract

This paper extends previous resuls on optimal insurance trading in the presence of a stock market that allows continuous asset trading and substantial personal heterogeneity, and applies those results in a context of asymmetric information with references to the role of genetic testing in insurance markets. We find a novel and surprising result under symmetric information: agents may optimally prefer to purchase full insurance despite the presence of unfairly priced insurance contracts, and other assets which are correlated with insurance. Asymmetric information has a Hirschleifer-type effect which can be solved by suspending insurance trading. Nevertheless, agents can attain their first best allocations, which suggests that the practice of restricting insurance not to be contingent on genetic tests can be efficient.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers with number 461.

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Date of creation: Nov 2000
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Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:461

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Related research
Keywords: Insurance; asymmetric information; genetic testing; portfolio choice;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies

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  4. Al-Najjar, Nabil Ibraheem, 1995. "Decomposition and Characterization of Risk with a Continuum of Random Variables," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(5), pages 1195-1224, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Cass, David & Chichilnisky, Graciela & Wu, Ho-Mou, 1996. "Individual Risk and Mutual Insurance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(2), pages 333-41, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Huang, Chi-fu, 1987. "An Intertemporal General Equilibrium Asset Pricing Model: The Case of Diffusion Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 117-42, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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