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Behavioral Biases and Long-Term Care Insurance: A Political Economy Approach

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  • De Donder Philippe

    (Toulouse School of Economics (GREMAQ-CNRS and IDEI), 31015 Toulouse Cedex 6, France)

  • Leroux Marie-Louise

    (Département des Sciences Économiques, ESG-UQAM, Montréal, QC; CIRPÉE (Montréal), CESifo (Munich) and CORE (Louvain la Neuve, Belgium), Canada)

Abstract

We develop a model where individuals all have the same probability of becoming dependent and vote over the social long-term care insurance contribution rate before buying additional private insurance and saving. We study three types of behavioral biases, all having in common that agents under-weight their dependency probability when taking private decisions. Sophisticated procrastinators anticipate their mistake when voting, while optimistic and myopic agents have preferences that are consistent across choices. Optimists under-estimate their own probability of becoming dependent but know the average probability, while myopics underestimate both. Sophisticated procrastinators attain the first-best allocation, while myopics and optimists insure too little and save too much. Myopics and optimists more (resp., less) biased than the median are worse off (resp., better off), at the majority-voting equilibrium, when private insurance is available than when it is not.

Suggested Citation

  • De Donder Philippe & Leroux Marie-Louise, 2013. "Behavioral Biases and Long-Term Care Insurance: A Political Economy Approach," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 551-575, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2013:i:2:p:551-575:n:8
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2012-0074
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    1. Dao, Nguyen Thang & Dávila, Julio, 2013. "Can geography lock a society in stagnation?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 442-446.
    2. De Donder, Philippe & Pestieau, Pierre, 2011. "Private, social and self insurance for longterm care: a political economy analysis," IDEI Working Papers 719, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Jun 2014.
    3. Pitthan, Francisco & De Witte, Kristof, 2021. "Puzzles of insurance demand and its biases: A survey on the role of behavioural biases and financial literacy on insurance demand," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    4. Philippe De Donder & Pierre Pestieau, 2013. "Private, Social and Self-Insurance for Long-Term Care in the Presence of Family Help - A Political Economy Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 4352, CESifo.
    5. Martin Boyer & Philippe Donder & Claude Fluet & Marie-Louise Leroux & Pierre-Carl Michaud, 2019. "Long-term care risk misperceptions," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(2), pages 183-215, April.
    6. Philippe Donder & Marie-Louise Leroux, 2017. "The political choice of social long term care transfers when family gives time and money," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 49(3), pages 755-786, December.
    7. Justina Klimaviciute & Pierre Pestieau, 2023. "The economics of long‐term care. An overview," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1192-1213, September.
    8. Caulier, Jean-François & Mauleon, Ana & Vannetelbosch, Vincent, 2015. "Allocation rules for coalitional network games," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 80-88.
    9. Łukasz Jurek & Wioletta Wolańska, 2021. "Determinants of Demand for Private Long-Term Care Insurance (Empirical Evidence from Poland)," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.
    10. Philippe De Donder & Marie-Louise Leroux, 2015. "The Political Economy of (in)formal Long Term Care Transfers," Cahiers de recherche 1508, Chaire de recherche Industrielle Alliance sur les enjeux économiques des changements démographiques.
    11. Christophe Bravard & Sudipta Sarangi & ANA MAULEON & JOSE J. SEMPERE-MONERRIS & VINCENT VANNETELBOSCH, 2016. "Contractually Stable Alliances," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 18(2), pages 212-225, April.
    12. Georges Casamatta & L. Batté, 2016. "The Political Economy of Population Aging," Post-Print hal-02520521, HAL.
    13. BELLELFLAMME, Paul & BLOCH , Francis & ,, 2013. "Dynamic protection of innovations through patents and trade secrets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2013059, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    14. Casamatta, G. & Batté, L., 2016. "The Political Economy of Population Aging," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 381-444, Elsevier.
    15. WANG, Kent & WANG, Shin-Huei & PAN, Zheyao, 2013. "Can federal reserve policy deviation explain response patterns of financial markets over time?," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2013029, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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