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Risk-sharing Contracts with Asymmetric Information

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  • Renaud Bourlès

    (Ecole Centrale Marseille and GREQAM – IDEP, Technopôle de Château – Gombert, 38, rue Frédéric Joliot – Curie, 13451 MARSEILLE Cedex 20, France. E-mails: renaud.bourles@centrale-marseille.fr; dominique.henriet@centrale-marseille.fr)

  • Dominique Henriet

    (Ecole Centrale Marseille and GREQAM – IDEP, Technopôle de Château – Gombert, 38, rue Frédéric Joliot – Curie, 13451 MARSEILLE Cedex 20, France. E-mails: renaud.bourles@centrale-marseille.fr; dominique.henriet@centrale-marseille.fr)

Abstract

We examine how risk-sharing is impacted by asymmetric information on the probability distribution of wealth. We define the optimal incentive compatible agreements in a two-agent model with two levels of wealth. When there is complete information on the probability of the different outcomes, the resulting allocation satisfies the mutuality principle (which states that everyone's final wealth depends only upon the aggregate wealth of the economy). This is no longer true when agents have private information regarding their probability distribution of wealth. Asymmetry of information (i) makes ex-post equal sharing unsustainable between two low-risk agents, and (ii) induces exchanges when agents have the same realization of wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Renaud Bourlès & Dominique Henriet, 2012. "Risk-sharing Contracts with Asymmetric Information," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 37(1), pages 27-56, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:genrir:v:37:y:2012:i:1:p:27-56
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesca Barigozzi & Renaud Bourlès & Dominique Henriet & Giuseppe Pignataro, 2017. "Pool size and the sustainability of optimal risk-sharing agreements," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 82(2), pages 273-303, February.
    2. Louis Lévy-Garboua & Claude Montmarquette & Jonathan Vaksmann & Marie Claire Villeval, 2017. "Voluntary Contributions to a Mutual Insurance Pool," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 198-218, February.
    3. Renaud Bourlès & Dominique Henriet, 2012. "Risk-sharing Contracts with Asymmetric Information," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 37(1), pages 27-56, March.
    4. Mohamed Belhaj & Renaud Bourl?s & Fr?d?ric Dero?an, 2014. "Risk-Taking and Risk-Sharing Incentives under Moral Hazard," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 58-90, February.
    5. Renaud Bourlès & Juliette Rouchier, 2012. "Evolving Informal Risk-Sharing Cooperatives and Other-Regarding Preferences," Working Papers halshs-00793706, HAL.
    6. Victorien Barbet & Renaud Bourlès & Juliette Rouchier, 2020. "Informal risk-sharing cooperatives: the effect of learning and other-regarding preferences," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 451-478, April.
    7. Debora Zaparova, 2020. "Mutual or stock insurance: Solidarity in the face of insolvency," Working Papers of BETA 2020-06, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    8. Jean-François Outreville, 2014. "The Meaning of Risk? Insights from The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 39(4), pages 768-781, October.

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