IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/vfsc15/113050.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contract Nonperformance and Ambiguity in Insurance Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Landmann, Andreas
  • Biener, Christian
  • Eling, Martin
  • Santana, Maria Isabel

Abstract

Insurance contract nonperformance relates to situations when valid claims are not paid by the insurer. We extend probabilistic insurance models to allow for such nonperformance risk as well as ambiguity regarding nonperformance and loss probabilities. We empirically test theoretical predictions from our model within a field lab experiment in a low-income setting. This is a persuasive context, since especially in emerging and poorly regulated markets there is a higher chance of contract nonperformance. In line with our predictions, insurance demand decreases by 17 percentage points in the presence of contract nonperformance risk and is reduced by a further 14 percentage points when contract nonperformance risk is ambiguous. It also seems that ambiguity does not easily disappear with experience. The results have implications for both industrialized and developing insurance markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Landmann, Andreas & Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Santana, Maria Isabel, 2015. "Contract Nonperformance and Ambiguity in Insurance Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113050, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/113050/1/VfS_2015_pid_364.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biener, Christian, 2013. "Pricing in Microinsurance Markets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 132-144.
    2. S. Viswanathan & Adriano Rampini, 2013. "Household risk management," 2013 Meeting Papers 647, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Iris Bohnet & Fiona Greig & Benedikt Herrmann & Richard Zeckhauser, 2008. "Betrayal Aversion: Evidence from Brazil, China, Oman, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 294-310, March.
    4. Johnson, Eric J & Hershey, John & Meszaros, Jacqueline & Kunreuther, Howard, 1993. "Framing, Probability Distortions, and Insurance Decisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 35-51, August.
    5. Daniel J. Clarke, 2016. "A Theory of Rational Demand for Index Insurance," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 283-306, February.
    6. Brun, Wibecke & Teigen, Karl Halvor, 1988. "Verbal probabilities: Ambiguous, context-dependent, or both?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 390-404, June.
    7. Albrecht, Peter & Maurer, Raimond, 1999. "Zur Bedeutung einer Ausfallbedrohtheit von Versicherungskontrakten - ein Beitrag zur Behavioral Insurance," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 99-76, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    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. Hui Li & Seth Neumuller & Casey Rothschild, 2021. "Optimal annuitization with imperfect information about insolvency risk," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 101-130, March.
    2. Glenn W. Harrison & Jia Min Ng, 2019. "Behavioral insurance and economic theory: A literature review," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 133-182, July.
    3. Immanuel Lampe & Daniel Würtenberger, 2019. "Loss Aversion And The Demand For Index Insurance," Working Papers on Finance 1907, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.

    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. Biener, Christian & Landmann, Andreas & Santana, Maria Isabel, 2019. "Contract nonperformance risk and uncertainty in insurance markets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 65-83.
    2. Zimmer, Anja & Schade, Christian & Gründl, Helmut, 2009. "Is default risk acceptable when purchasing insurance? Experimental evidence for different probability representations, reasons for default, and framings," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 11-23, February.
    3. Shawn Cole & Xavier Gine & Jeremy Tobacman & Petia Topalova & Robert Townsend & James Vickery, 2013. "Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 104-135, January.
    4. Liu, Yanyan & Chen, Kevin Z. & Hill, Ruth Vargas & Xiao, Chengwei, 2013. "Borrowing from the insurer: An empirical analysis of demand and impact of insurance in China:," IFPRI discussion papers 1306, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Patrick S. Ward & David L. Ortega & David J. Spielman & Neha Kumar & Sumedha Minocha, 2020. "Demand for Complementary Financial and Technological Tools for Managing Drought Risk," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(2), pages 607-653.
    6. Groh, Matthew & McKenzie, David, 2016. "Macroinsurance for microenterprises: A randomized experiment in post-revolution Egypt," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 13-25.
    7. Duru, Maya Joan, 2016. "Too Certain to Invest? Public Safety Nets and Insurance Markets in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 37-51.
    8. Hongli Feng & Xiaodong Du & David A. Hennessy, 2020. "Depressed demand for crop insurance contracts, and a rationale based on third generation Prospect Theory," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 59-73, January.
    9. Robin Chark & Soo Chew, 2015. "A neuroimaging study of preference for strategic uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 209-227, June.
    10. Daniel Stein & Jeremy Tobacman, 2016. "Weather Insurance Savings Accounts," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 41(4), pages 677-700, October.
    11. Martin Eling & Shailee Pradhan & Joan T Schmit, 2014. "The Determinants of Microinsurance Demand," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 39(2), pages 224-263, April.
    12. Matsuda, Ayako & Kurosaki, Takashi & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2013. "Rainfall and Temperature Index Insurance in India: Project Documentation," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 34, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Michael R. CARTER & Alain de JANVRY & Elisabeth SADOULET & Alexandros SARRIS, 2014. "Index-based weather insurance for developing countries: A review of evidence and a set of propositions for up-scaling," Working Papers P111, FERDI.
    14. de Nicola, Francesca, 2015. "Handling the weather : insurance, savings, and credit in West Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7187, The World Bank.
    15. Norton, Michael & Boucher, Stephen & Verteramo Chiu, Leslie, 2015. "Geostatistics, Basis Risk, and Index Insurance," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205755, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Kubitza, Christian & Hofmann, Annette & Steinorth, Petra, 2019. "Financial literacy and precautionary insurance," ICIR Working Paper Series 34/19, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    17. Shin, Soye & Magnan, Nicholas & Mullally, Conner & Janzen, Sarah, 2022. "Demand for Weather Index Insurance among Smallholder Farmers under Prospect Theory," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 82-104.
    18. Jensen, Nathaniel D. & Mude, Andrew G. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2018. "How basis risk and spatiotemporal adverse selection influence demand for index insurance: Evidence from northern Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 172-198.
    19. Sebastain Awondo & Genti Kostandini, 2022. "Leveraging optimal portfolio of Drought-Tolerant Maize Varieties for weather index insurance and food security," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 47(1), pages 45-65, March.
    20. Takahashi, Kazushi & Ikegami, Munenobu & Sheahan, Megan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2016. "Experimental Evidence on the Drivers of Index-Based Livestock Insurance Demand in Southern Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 324-340.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:vfsc15:113050. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    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.