This paper presents a comprehensive view of life-time taxation including both explicit taxation through the general tax system and implicit taxation via the retirement benefit formula. Individuals are heterogeneous with respect to productivity. It is shown that the optimal structure of...

We show that quasi-hyperbolic discounting not only affects savings decisions but also the demand for insurance. In general, insurance demand by quasi-hyperbolic discounters is time-inconsistent. Without liquidity constraints they buy more insurance than initially planned. In the presence of...

In this paper, we present a method to derive the optimal cost sharing formula to reduce risk selection in community-rated health insurance markets. Our main result is that selection incentives are reduced most effectively when costs are reimbursed where the share of high risk types exceeding...

Dieser Beitrag untersucht aus verfassungsökonomischer Sicht den Reformvorschlag, die Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung durch Kopfbeiträge zu finanzieren. Dabei wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich die Bürger im Verfassungszustand einem nicht versicherbaren Prämienrisiko gegenübersehen. Das...

Premium subsidies have been advocated as an alternative to social health insurance. These subsidies are paid if expenditure on health insurance exceeds a given share of income. In this paper, we examine whether this approach is superior to social health insurance from a welfare perspective. We...

In the absence of a perfect risk adjustment scheme, reimbursing health insurers' costs can reduce risk selection in community-rated health insurance markets. In this paper, we develop a model in which insurers determine the cost efficiency of health care and have incentives for risk selection....

This paper examines the optimal design of pension plans when the health status during retirement is uncertain. Assuming that the health status affects both life expectancy and the marginal utility of consumption, choice between a lump-sum payment and an annuity can be welfare-enhancing if the...

We examine the impact of tuition fees for long term students at the University of Konstanz. Applying duration analysis to examine how tuition fees influence when and how students finish their studies in six different majors, we find significant effects with respect to the hazard rates of the...

This study investigates hospitals’ dynamic incentives to select patients when hospitals are remunerated according to a prospective payment system of the DRG type. Given that prices typically reflect past average costs, we use a discrete-time dynamic framework. Patients differ in severity...