Long term care is one of the few observable triggers for home sale among the elderly. Combined with a thin reverse mortgage market, this helps rationalize weak demand for Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI). Home equity typically tapped primarily in the event of long term care reduces the gain to...

Having historically received very little foreign direct investment, Japan has experienced a substantial increase in such inflows in recent years. This paper analyzes the impact of the growing presence of foreign firms on the Japanese economy through detailed case studies on the automobile,...

We provide strong evidence of advantageous selection in the Medigap insurance market, and analyze its sources. Using Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) data, we find that, conditional on controls for the price of Medigap, medical expenditures for senior citizens with Medigap coverage...

For more than a decade, mandatory basic health insurance in the Netherlands is offered by competing health insurers. Health insurers have to charge community-rated premiums for a standardized benefits package and to accept all applicants. A risk equalization scheme has been introduced to reduce...

We study theoretically and empirically how consumers in an individual private longterm health insurance market with front-loaded contracts respond to newly mandated portability requirements of their old-age provisions. To foster competition, effective 2009, the German legislature made the...

We explore the effects that optimism bias has on the demand for insurance. Our theory is based on a simple binomial model of the demand for insurance in which consumers make optimistically biased assessments concerning the likelihood of future outcomes. From this model, we derive an insurance...

The Affordable Care Act's medical loss ratio (MLR) provisions require that health insurers spend a minimum percentage of premiums on medical costs, thereby limiting administrative costs and profits. Analyses of annual MLR changes indicate that plans both below and above the minimum MLR manage...

We present and empirically implement an equilibrium labor market search model where risk averse workers facing medical expenditure shocks are matched with firms making health insurance coverage decisions. Our model delivers a rich set of predictions that can account for a wide variety of...

The potential need for long-term care (LTC) is one of the greatest financial risks faced not only by the elderly, but also by their adult children, who often provide care or financial assistance. We investigate adult children's role in the demand for LTC insurance. Similar to flood insurance, we...

There is limited trade in health services despite big differences in the price of health care across countries. Whether patients travel abroad for health care depends on the coverage of treatments by their health insurance plan. Under existing health insurance contracts, the gains from trade are...