We study biased survival expectations across two domains and examine whether such biased expectations influence health and financial behaviors. Combining individual-level longitudinal data, retrospective, and end of life data from several European countries for more than a decade, we estimate...

The SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, infection fatality rate (IFR) has been hard to accurately estimate. It is a key parameter for disease modeling and policy decisions. Asymptomatic spread and limited testing have understated infections in hard to predict ways across jurisdictions. We survey serology,...

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant shock to the world economy which led to large-scale government support measures and thus proved the non-resilience of the current financial ecosystem, with devastating effects on the human global population. As research indicates, pandemic...

Anti-selection occurs when information asymmetry exists between an insurer and an applicant. When an applicant knows that they are at high risk of loss, but the insurer does not, the applicant may try to exploit this knowledge differential to secure insurance at a lower premium that does not...

We document that political frictions significantly affect both pricing and supply in the long-term care insurance (LTCI) market. Comparing insurers' requests for premium increases submitted in the same year and for the same policy to different state regulators, we find that they are 7.7% more...

Conventional wisdom suggests that if private health insurance plans compete alongside a public option, they may endanger the latter's financial stability by cream-skimming good risks. Documenting cream-skimming in dual insurance systems empirically is challenging, since selection into private...

We look at COVID-19 mortality and expected life expectancy risks by age prior to the development of pharmaceutical treatments for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A COVID-19 infection more than doubled the annual mortality risks for Americans over sixty. Americans aged sixty or older stand to lose 153 to...

Our analysis shows that it is premature to dismiss the health insurance initiatives based on the existing analysis because these schemes perform better with time. This could be due to supply side factors such as improved implementation or demand side factors such as awareness of the scheme and...

This paper illustrates the key features of an innovative micro health insurance pilot intervention, where the product has been designed keeping in view the targets of adequate risk protection, inclusivity of access, affordability, and program sustainability; which are mostly absent in the...