IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v124y2014i3p520-522.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is there adverse selection in the life insurance market? Evidence from a representative sample of purchasers

Author

Listed:
  • Harris, Timothy
  • Yelowitz, Aaron

Abstract

This paper examines asymmetric information in the life insurance market using data that link life insurance holdings with death records for a representative sample of purchasers. This analysis finds no compelling evidence for adverse selection in a broad age cohort.

Suggested Citation

  • Harris, Timothy & Yelowitz, Aaron, 2014. "Is there adverse selection in the life insurance market? Evidence from a representative sample of purchasers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 520-522.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:124:y:2014:i:3:p:520-522
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2014.07.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176514002869
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2014.07.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein, 2011. "Selection in Insurance Markets: Theory and Empirics in Pictures," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 115-138, Winter.
    2. Tomas Philipson & John Cawley, 1999. "An Empirical Examination of Information Barriers to Trade in Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(4), pages 827-846, September.
    3. He, Daifeng, 2009. "The life insurance market: Asymmetric information revisited," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(9-10), pages 1090-1097, October.
    4. He, Daifeng, 2011. "Is there dynamic adverse selection in the life insurance market?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 113-115, July.
    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. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Racial disparities in life insurance coverage," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 94-107, January.
    2. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz & Charles Courtemanche, 2021. "Did COVID‐19 change life insurance offerings?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 831-861, December.
    3. Rajat Deb & Kanchan Kumar Nath & Mukesh Nepal & Sourav Chakraborty & Kiran Sankar Chakraborty, 2021. "Do People Choose Life Insurance for Protection or for Saving?," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 20(1), pages 35-44, June.
    4. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2017. "Nudging Life Insurance Holdings In The Workplace," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 951-981, April.
    5. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz & Jeffery Talbert & Alison Davis, 2023. "Adverse selection in the group life insurance market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 911-941, October.
    6. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Life Insurance Holdings And Well‐Being Of Surviving Spouses," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(3), pages 526-538, July.
    7. Moiz Bhai & Danny Hughes, 2024. "Estimating Self-Selection in Medicare Advantage," Working Papers 2024-009, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Denis Charles & Magali Dumontet & Meglena Jeleva & Johanna Etner, 2024. "Behavioral drivers of individuals’ Term Life Insurance Demand: evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment," EconomiX Working Papers 2024-23, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    9. Harris, Timothy F. & Yelowitz, Aaron & Talbert, Jeffery & Davis, Alison, 2022. "Adverse Selection in the Group Life Insurance Market," IZA Discussion Papers 14985, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    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. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz & Jeffery Talbert & Alison Davis, 2023. "Adverse selection in the group life insurance market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 911-941, October.
    2. Harris, Timothy F. & Yelowitz, Aaron & Talbert, Jeffery & Davis, Alison, 2022. "Adverse Selection in the Group Life Insurance Market," IZA Discussion Papers 14985, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2017. "Nudging Life Insurance Holdings In The Workplace," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 951-981, April.
    4. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz, 2018. "Racial disparities in life insurance coverage," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 94-107, January.
    5. Andrea Attar & Thomas Mariotti & François Salanié, 2022. "Regulating Insurance Markets: Multiple Contracting And Adverse Selection," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(3), pages 981-1020, August.
    6. Timothy F. Harris & Aaron Yelowitz & Charles Courtemanche, 2021. "Did COVID‐19 change life insurance offerings?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 831-861, December.
    7. Attar, Andrea & Mariotti, Thomas & Salanié, François, 2014. "Multiple Contracting in Insurance Markets," IDEI Working Papers 839, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse, revised Sep 2016.
    8. Thomas Mariotti, 2016. "Multiple Contracting in Insurance Markets," 2016 Meeting Papers 820, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Gan, Li & Huang, Feng & Mayer, Adalbert, 2015. "A simple test for private information in insurance markets with heterogeneous insurance demand," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 197-200.
    10. Mérel, Pierre & Ortiz-Bobea, Ariel & Paroissien, Emmanuel, 2021. "How big is the “lemons” problem? Historical evidence from French wines," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Xi Wu & Li Gan, 2023. "Multiple dimensions of private information in life insurance markets," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(5), pages 2145-2180, November.
    12. Hanming Fang & Zenan Wu, 2018. "Multidimensional private information, market structure, and insurance markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 49(3), pages 751-787, September.
    13. Deryugina, Tatyana, 2012. "Does Selection in Insurance Markets Always Favor Buyers?," MPRA Paper 53583, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Ciprian MatiÅŸ & Eugenia MatiÅŸ, 2013. "Asymmetric Information In Insurance Field: Some General Considerations," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 1(15), pages 1-17.
    15. Karl Ove Aarbu, 2017. "Asymmetric Information in the Home Insurance Market," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(1), pages 35-72, March.
    16. Hanming Fang & Edward Kung, 2021. "Why do life insurance policyholders lapse? The roles of income, health, and bequest motive shocks," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(4), pages 937-970, December.
    17. Amelie C. Wuppermann, 2017. "Private Information in Life Insurance, Annuity, and Health Insurance Markets," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(4), pages 855-881, October.
    18. James M. Carson & Cameron M. Ellis & Robert E. Hoyt & Krzysztof Ostaszewski, 2020. "Sunk Costs and Screening: Two‐Part Tariffs in Life Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 87(3), pages 689-718, September.
    19. Nathaniel Hendren, 2013. "Private Information and Insurance Rejections," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(5), pages 1713-1762, September.
    20. Petra Persson, 2020. "Social Insurance and the Marriage Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(1), pages 252-300.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adverse selection; Advantageous selection; Life insurance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    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:eee:ecolet:v:124:y:2014:i:3:p:520-522. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.