IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/kondp1/288.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

To commit or not to commit: A health insurance monopoly with variable quality and uncertain types of individuals

Author

Listed:
  • Kifmann, Mathias

Abstract

This paper examines the trade-off between risk allocation and quality supply for an insurance monopolist when individuals face two kinds of risk related to health. First, they may suffer an ordinary monetary loss. Second, they are subject to uncertain premiums because their type may change. We assume that neither quality of insurance service,nor the individual type is verifiable in front of a court. We show that no-commitment is a necessary condition for the efficient supply of unverifiable quality while the insurance of premium risk requires commitment. Profit-maximizing contracts may involve full, partial or no- commitment. Risk allocation or quality supply is inefficient.

Suggested Citation

  • Kifmann, Mathias, 1997. "To commit or not to commit: A health insurance monopoly with variable quality and uncertain types of individuals," Discussion Papers, Series I 288, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp1:288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/68870/1/685786633.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James W. Friedman, 1971. "A Non-cooperative Equilibrium for Supergames," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(1), pages 1-12.
    2. Diamond, Peter, 1992. "Organizing the Health Insurance Market," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(6), pages 1233-1254, November.
    3. Dionne, G. & Doherty, N., 1991. "Adverse Selection In Insurance Markets: A Selective Survey," Cahiers de recherche 9105, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    4. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    5. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    6. Pauly, Mark V & Kunreuther, Howard & Hirth, Richard, 1995. "Guaranteed Renewability in Insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 143-156, March.
    7. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    8. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1989. "Imperfect information in the product market," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 769-847, Elsevier.
    9. Ronald D. Fischer & Pablo Serra, 1997. "Análisis económico del sistema de seguros de salud en Chile," Documentos de Trabajo 17, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    10. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    11. Cochrane, John H, 1995. "Time-Consistent Health Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(3), pages 445-473, June.
    12. Rothschild, Michael & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1970. "Increasing risk: I. A definition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 225-243, September.
    13. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, September.
    2. Kaplow, Louis & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Antitrust," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 1073-1225, Elsevier.
    3. Boone, J., 2004. "Balance of Power," Other publications TiSEM d3f8cd4b-eaf0-4c1c-aed4-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Boone, Jan, 2004. "Balance of Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 4733, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Haucap, Justus, 2017. "The rule of law and the emergence of market exchange: A new institutional economic perspective," DICE Discussion Papers 276, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    6. Martin Gaynor, "undated". "What Do We Know About Competition and Quality in Health Care Markets?," GSIA Working Papers 2006-E62, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business.
    7. Butler, Jeffrey V. & Carbone, Enrica & Conzo, Pierluigi & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2020. "Past performance and entry in procurement: An experimental investigation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 179-195.
    8. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    9. Bergman, Mats A. & Johansson, Per & Lundberg, Sofia & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2016. "Privatization and quality: Evidence from elderly care in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 109-119.
    10. Lippert, Christian, 2005. "Is Certification a Promising Way to Ensure Sustainable Resource Use? An Analysis Based on the Concept of 'Self-Enforcing Contracts'," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24563, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Boone, J., 2002. "'Be Nice Unless it Pays to Fight' : A New Theory of Price Determination with Implications for Competition Policy," Discussion Paper 2002-23, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    12. Johannes Hörner, 2002. "Reputation and Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 644-663, June.
    13. Shaffer, Sherrill, 2004. "Patterns of competition in banking," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 287-313.
    14. Vilma Todri & Anindya Ghose & Param Vir Singh, 2020. "Trade-Offs in Online Advertising: Advertising Effectiveness and Annoyance Dynamics Across the Purchase Funnel," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 102-125, March.
    15. Boone, J., 2004. "Balance of power," Other publications TiSEM dcff47a3-8a29-4ec3-a752-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    17. Boone, J., 2003. "'Be nice, unless it pays to fight' : A new theory of price determination with implications for competition policy," Other publications TiSEM 7066cb71-3c22-4565-8c71-5, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Igal Hendel & Alessandro Lizzeri, 2003. "The Role of Commitment in Dynamic Contracts: Evidence from Life Insurance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 299-328.
    19. Monic Sun & Rajeev K. Tyagi, 2020. "Product Fit Uncertainty and Information Provision in a Distribution Channel," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(10), pages 2381-2402, October.
    20. Eaton B. Curtis & MacDonald Ian A. & Meriluoto Laura, 2010. "Existence Advertising, Price Competition and Asymmetric Market Structure," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    health insurance; premium risk; unverifiable quality; commitment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

    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:kondp1:288. 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/fwkonde.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.