When countries, and macroeconomic models, open up to international capital markets, the welfare gains available through completion of financial markets for contingencies potentially are much greater than those available from access to noncontingent international borrowing. Intercasual insurance,...

Why do some U.S. states have higher levels of marital formation than others? This paper introduces an economic model wherein a state's representative individual may choose to marry in order to diversity his or her idiosyncratic income risk. The paper demonstrates that such a diversification...

We analyze the role of risk-sharing institutions in transitions to modern economies. Transitions requires individual-level risk-taking in pursuing productivity-enhancing activities including using and developing new knowledge. Individual-level, idiosyncratic risk implies that distinct...

This paper deals with the phenomenon of risk-selection and its appearance in the german compulsory health insurance market since the adoption of the so-called "Gesundheitsstrukturgesetz" of 1992. Further, the "Risikostrukturausgleich" as well as other measures are discussed as instruments of...

This paper examines how cooperation in an insurance game depends on risk preferences and the riskiness of income. It considers a dynamic game where commitment is limited, and characterizes the level of cooperation as measured by the reciprocal of the discount factor above which perfect risk...

Nach den Terrorattacken vom 11. September sehen sich die privaten Erst- und Rückversicherer mit einer völlig veränderten Risikolage konfrontiert, die sie bisher bei ihren Kalkulationen außer Acht ließen. Dr. Michael Wolgast, Gesamtverband der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft, schlägt...

This paper studies the welfare costs and the redistributive effects of inflation in the presence of idiosyncratic liquidity risk, in a micro-founded search-theoretical monetary model. We calibrate the model to match the empirical aggregate money demand and the distribution of money holdings...