Risk awareness and adverse selection in catastrophe insurance: Evidence from California’s residential earthquake insurance market

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - How does catastrophe-risk awareness affect purchase decisions and selection patterns in the insurance market? I study this issue using data on take-up rates of...     

Optimality of deductible: a characterization,with application to Yaari’s dual theory

Theory and Decision - The main purpose of this paper is to show that left-monotone risk aversion, a meaningful refinement of strong risk aversion, characterizes decision makers for whom deductible...     

Localization of Marxism in China and the Construc-tion of China’s Modernity

现代性在中国的生成与建构,是与马克思主义中国化历史地联系在一起的;中国现代性的建构,也历史地确定了马克思主义中国化的起点、任务与方向。马克思主义中国化的理论任务就是要求确立以建设为核心的观念、以促进人与社会的全面发展为主旨的马克思主义理论话语系统,构造一套符合全球化时代要求、有利于中华民族复兴及长治久安、并具有自检与防御机制及能力的开放性的社会、政治与文化体系。     

Reforming health insurance: A question of principles?

Most industrialized countries have financed health services through health insurance. Two systems prevail: private, or public (social) health insurance. The theoretical differences between them are reviewed. It is argued that most health systems are, however, hybrids and that health insurance reform in Europe and the United States has accentuated this trend because the principles distinguishing the two systems have often been ignored. This is illustrated through the evolution of voluntary vs. compulsory affiliation, coping with moral hazard, and provider regulation.     

The senator’s tale: the development of Bremen’s bourgeoisie in the post-1945 era

Were members of the German bourgeoisie capable of forming the foundation for a new self-understanding of post-1945German society? Or did they prove to be unsuited as agents of Germany’s new beginning? This article seeks to answer these questions by focusing on historical developments in the early phase of the Federal Republic of Germany as reflected in the biography of one prominent representative of the German bourgeoisie. Theodor Spitta, who was born in 1873, was elected in 1911as a senator for life in the government of the Free Hanse City of Bremen. Spitta was an outstanding representative of a generation socialized under the last German Kaiser, a generation which perceived itself as part of a politically liberal Bremen bourgeoisie. He feared the gradual decline, indeed the disintegration of his class. None the less – or perhaps for that very reason – he committed himself to the goal of restoring a regionally specific form of bourgeois life in the city of Bremen. Although Spitta declared a ‘farewell to the bourgeoisie’ in his autobiographical texts, that did not prevent him from actively pursuing the revival of a unique urban-bourgeois ‘spirit’. This spirit was to serve as a tool in promoting Bremen’s central political goal in post-1945Germany: the preservation of the city-state’s unique status within Germany’s federal system.     

Correction to: Optimality of deductible: a characterization,with application to Yaari’s dual theory

Theory and Decision -     

Machiavelli’s Soderini and the problem of necessity

Drawing principally on a particular example discussed by Machiavelli, this article seeks to clarify the concept of necessity and assess the Machiavellian contentions that evil-doing is in politics often necessary and justified. The example indicates that claims of necessity are best construed as allegations that evil-doing is “indispensable.” The example also indicates that these allegations are often suspect because these typically reflect limited information and knowledge and often biases and rationalizations as well, although this is not stressed by Machiavelli. Instead, Machiavelli stresses the dangers and difficulties statesmen often confront when seeking to secure important political ends or avoid costly failures, dangers and difficulties which he believes are ultimately related to the nature of human beings and the character of political elites. With respect to the morality of evil-doing, Machiavelli is suggestive of different kinds and forms of justification. Five kinds are described, and all are found unsatisfactory.     

The ‘flood’ of 1945: regimes and repertoires of migration in the Soviet Union at war’s end

The pioneering migration scholar Eugene Kulischer employed the metaphor of the ‘flood’ to characterize the movement of peoples across Eurasia at the end of the Second World War. This article builds on that metaphor by analysing the range of Soviet citizens’ migratory movements within and back to the USSR in 1945. It pays special attention to settlers, deportees, returning evacuees, repatriates, demobilized soldiers and itinerants. Not only did these different groups of migrants appear simultaneously, but each produced the other: settlers moved to deportees’ vacated land; many demobilized soldiers and evacuees were recruited as settlers; some repatriates were deported; and those escaping deportation often became itinerants. In each case the article examines the interaction between the state’s migration regimes – its projects and provision of infrastructure to move people – and migrants’ repertoires, that is, their reliance on networks of kinship and friendship to avoid or mitigate hardship and maximize opportunities. It argues that the fulfilment of the state’s agendas with respect to migration depended not only on its regimes but migrants’ own practices.     

The relevance of institutions and people’s preferences in the PSNP and IN-SCT programmes in Ethiopia

The effective implementation of social protection interventions is key for achieving positive change. The existing literature mainly focuses on issues related to programme design and impact, rather than the factors that influence the emergence, expansion and provision of these programmes. This article builds on the recent literature that indicates that the quality of institutions and people’s preferences play an important role in the implementation of social protection. It does so by using Ethiopia and its Productive Safety Net Programme – one of the largest social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa – as a case study, thereby contributing to debates on how to implement social protection more effectively, particularly in settings of widespread poverty and relatively low levels of institutional capacity. Based on primary qualitative data, the article finds that greater institutional quality at the local level is associated with the more effective provision of social protection. The ability of community members and social protection clients to voice preferences can lead to adaptations in implementation, although the extent to which this occurs is highly gendered.     

The measurement and implication of the older people’s social function in the community: a Shanghai experience

Abstract

The study employed a quantitative approach to measure the social function of the older people. From a questionnaire survey in a Shanghai community, we found that participants’ party affiliation, education, age group, functional capacity (IADL) and occupational status were the major factors affecting older people’s social function. The older people participated more actively, tended to trust others more and enjoyed better social function in the community. These findings lead to implications for social work practices and policymaking procedures on active ageing.     

An Analysis of the Determinants of the Changes in China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves’ Nominal and Real Rates of Return

We use decomposition and regression to examine the reasons for the changes in nominal and real rates of return of China’s foreign exchange reserves between 2002 and 2009. The results show that the US financial market risk premium is the most important determinant of changes in the nominal rate of return, while the US dollar exchange rate and the bulk commodity price are the two key determinants of changes in the real rate of return. From empirically based research, one may conclude that the loose monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve increases China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but decreases the real rate of return and that the European debt crisis has an uncertain impact on China’s foreign exchange reserves’ nominal rate of return but may well raise the real rate of return.     

China’s Role and Influence in the Incidents in Po-land and Hungary in 1956

在苏联处理波匈事件的初期,中国因情况不明未及参与。而在苏联决定从布达佩斯撤军和再次武装占领匈牙利的问题上,中国的意见起了主导作用。这就是说,在危机处理的后期,苏联听从了中国的建议和主张,其结果是毛泽东既批判了苏联的大国主义,又保证了社会主义阵营的团结。波匈事件标志着中共在国际共产主义运动中的地位和声望已经迈上了一个新台阶。     

Preferences and decision errors in the winner’s curse

The problem of asymmetric information causes a winner’s curse in many environments. Given many unsuccessful attempts to eliminate it, we hypothesize that some people ‘prefer’ the lotteries underlying the winner’s curse. Study 1 shows that after removing the hypothesized cause of error, asymmetric information, half the subjects still prefer winner’s curse lotteries, implying past efforts to de-bias the winner’s curse may have been more successful than previously recognized since subjects prefer these lotteries. Study 2 shows risk-seeking preferences only partially explain lottery preferences, while non-monetary sources of utility may explain the rest. Study 2 suggests lottery preferences are not independent of context, and offers methods to reduce the winner’s curse.

Firm’s protection against disasters: are investment and insurance substitutes or complements?

Theory and Decision - We use a controlled laboratory experiment to study firm’s protection against potential technological damages. The probability of a catastrophic event is known, and the...     

America’s policy thinking in the age of Trump

What is striking in Trumpian economics – supply-side economics too – is the omission of economic growth. There is no awareness that nations at the frontier need indigenous innovation to have ample growth. The take-offs into sustained growth in 19th century Britain and America were fueled by dynamism from the grassroots up. Moreover, this stunted economics has no room for the rewards from participating in the economy besides the market wage – for the satisfaction of succeeding at what one is doing, the sense of flourishing as one’s career unfolds, and the thrill of venturing into the unknown.