One-sided commitment in dynamic insurance contracts: Evidence from private health insurance in Germany

This paper studies long-term private health insurance (PHI) in Germany. It describes the main actuarial principles of premium calculation and relates these to existing theory. In the German PHI policyholders do not commit to renewing their insurance contracts, but insurers commit to offering renewal at a premium rate that does not reflect revealed future information about the insured risk. We show that empirical results are consistent with theoretical predictions from one-sided commitment models: front-loading in premiums generates a lock-in of consumers, and more front-loading is generally associated with lower rates of lapse. Due to a lack of consumer commitment, dynamic information revelation about risk type implies that high-risk policyholders are more likely to retain their PHI contracts than are low-risk types.     

A stronger role for the private sector in France's health insurance?

Social security in France funds the regular costs of medical goods and services up to a maximum of 75.7 per cent only, so there is a significant level of out-of-pocket expenses to the individual. Complementary cover can be obtained from a private insurer, but this cover gives rise to numerous inequalities in terms of both access and content. The health insurance reforms scheduled for 2004 may, however, allow private insurers to play a greater role in funding health costs, albeit at the cost of weakening national solidarity.     

成长期的民营企业持续成长研究

我国民营企业正处于企业生命周期中的成长期。带有独特创业特点的民营企业,因其自控能力和活力的迅速下降,导致成长期受阻——迷失了目标和方向,出现一系列的非理性行为,速生速亡。规模经济理论和不完全市场竞争的现实,为民营企业持续成长提供了理论基础和机遇。民营企业应从强化创新意识、培育核心竞争力、创建学习型组织和实施“蓝海战略”四个方面入手,提高企业的持续成长能力。     

Modeling Pension Reforms and Estimating Implicit Pension Debt

The article reviews the major structures of pension schemes, their classification, prerequisites, and the reasons for pension reforms. Special attention is given to implicit pension debt as a tool for estimating future government obligations. The main principles of implicit debt estimation and a short review of its implementation are discussed.     

Ideas, private institutions and American welfare state 'exceptionalism': the case of health and old-age insurance, 1915–1965

Traditional theories of welfare state development divide into two camps: societal accounts and institutional accounts. The aim of the present article is to amend and enrich the institutional approach to US social policy by reconsidering key aspects of the genesis of the American welfare state: 1) showing that concepts such as 'policy feedback' and 'path dependence' need to be extended to encompass the effect of private social policies; and 2) taking policy paradigms and agenda setting more seriously than is the norm in institutional scholarship. The empirical analysis is divided into two parts. The first part explores the activities of the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) in the decade beginning in 1910 and the genesis of Social Security in the 1930s, while the second part examines the effect of the private benefit developments on policy choices between 1935 and 1965.     

城市计生家庭的养老模式与养老储备

本文采用问卷调查的方式,考察计生父母对养老的看法,主要研究现阶段的养老储备、对未来养老的担心方面、养老意愿以及老年自养观念的倾向。从而进一步研究现阶段城市计生父母对未来养老的意愿,并发现其中所面临的问题和主导的养老趋势,更好地为今后的养老问题做决策。     

关于退休金制度的改革问题——信息分析述评

在人类社会步入21世纪之际,老龄社会的来临已是不争的事实。为此,退休金制度的改革,在大多数国家,不论是发达国家,还是发展中国家和转轨经济国家,都已提上议事日程。本文着重介绍世界各国老年人收入保障的几种方法,以及世界各国退休金制度的改革经验和发展趋势。     

Ethnicity and Occupational Pension Membership in the UK

Reflecting a relatively low‐value Basic State Pension, occupational pensions have historically been a key aspect of pension protection within Britain. Existing research shows that minority ethnic groups are less likely to benefit from such pensions and are more likely to face poverty in later life, as a result of the interaction of their labour market participation and pension membership patterns. However, the lack of adequate data on ethnic minorities has so far prevented the direct comparison of different ethnic groups, as well as their comparison to the White British group. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, this article explores patterns of employment and the odds ratios of membership in an employer's pension scheme among working‐age individuals from minority ethnic groups and the White British population, taking into account factors not used by previous research, such as one's migration history and sector of employment (public/private). The analysis provides new empirical evidence confirming that ethnicity remains a strong determinant of one's pension protection prospects through being in paid work, being an employee and working for an employer who offers a pension scheme. However, once an individual is working for an employer offering a pension scheme, the effect of ethnicity on that person's odds of being a member of that scheme reduces, except among Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals for whom the differentials remain. The article also provides evidence on the pension protection of Polish individuals, a relatively ‘new’ minority group in the UK.     

Pension systems and prospects in Asia and the Pacific

There is a diversity of pension systems in the Asia and Pacific region. A growing number of countries have social insurance pension schemes, but many others which have provident funds have not set up any mandatory pension system at all. Demographic, social and economic changes mean the need for a regular income in old age will increase enormously. Existing schemes should be extended to all employees, benefits should meet certain minimum standards, administrative arrangements must adapt to structural change, and the budgeting both of governments and of households must be adjusted to take account of changing age dependency ratios.     

Reinsurance and the liability insurance crisis

Insurance-industry accounts of the liability insurance crisis of the mid-1980s often cite disruption of supply in reinsurance markets as an important contributing factor. Economic theories of the crisis have not explored this explanation for the severity of the crisis. This article investigates the extent to which events in reinsurance markets affected liability insurance market outcomes. It documents significant shocks to reinsurance supply in the early 1980s and finds evidence of subsequent disruptions to the price and availability of reinsurance. Regression analysis of liability insurance profitability over the time period supports the hypothesis that problems in reinsurance markets played an important role in the crisis.     

Optimal insurance without expected utility: The dual theory and the linearity of insurance contracts

Models of the insurance markets and institutions are routinely based on expected utility. Since EU is being challenged by an increasing number of decision models, we examine whether EU-based models are robust in their predictions. To do so, we rework some basic models of optimal insurance contracts and equilibrium using the “dual” theory to EU of Yaari. When there is a single, insurable source of risk, dual theory permits only corner solutions if the contract itself is linear. This contrasts sharply with EU. Nonlinearity, and thereby the possibility of interior solutions, is introduced in two ways. First, the contract itself is nonlinear, i.e., a deductible insurance policy. Or second, the decision maker is subject to some background risk such as uninsurable risky assets or default of the insurer. When decision problems are subject to nonlinearity, the predictions on optimal insurance are more similar to, though not identical with, those generated with EU.     

Fundamental Decisions for the Reform of Pension Systems

This paper outlines the fundamental options for the design of pension systems in any country. The financing and benefits structure is described, with particular reference to distribution policy objectives. The need for thorough preparation to back up decision-making is emphasized, together with the need to take into account the many and varied interactions with other institutions and fields, particularly the long-term effects of changes and the prevailing conditions in the country concerned. Reforms often involve long-term transitional arrangements, so that different forms of pension provision should not be compared in isolation, although this is often done when comparing pay-as-you-go financing and capital funding. Moreover, a close link can be established between contributions and the subsequent pension in state pay-as-you-go schemes as well as private, funded pension provision. Finally, in the decision-making process, more attention needs to be paid to the flow of information to decision-makers, citizens and the media in order to increase the acceptability of reform measures.     

Comparing the Pension Promises of 30 OECD Countries

This paper takes a microeconomic approach to compare prospective pension benefits in the 30 OECD countries. It shows entitlements gross and net of taxes and social security contributions for male and female single workers based on 2002 pension rules and parameters. The models cover all public and private mandatory sources of retirement income for full‐career private‐sector workers across a broad earnings range. The paper shows that average earners in OECD countries can expect a post‐tax pension of about 70 per cent of their earnings after tax. The average minimum retirement benefit is just under 29 per cent of national average earnings.     

养老金并轨实施办法

正近日,北京市政府公报公布了《北京市机关事业单位工作人员养老保险制度改革实施办法》。截至目前,全国已有26个省区落实了养老金并轨改革。根据《办法》规定,基本养老保险费由单位和个人共同负担。单位缴费比例为参加养老保险工作人员个人缴费工资基数之和的20%,个人缴费比例为本人缴费工资基数的8%,由单位代扣。此外,机关事业单位工作人员按本人缴费工资基数的8%建立基本养老保险个人账户。个人账户储存额只能用于养老,不得提前支     

Excluded losses and the demand for insurance

The demand for insurance is examined when the insured asset can incur losses that are excluded from insurance coverage. These losses are negatively correlated with covered losses and hence cannot be treated as background risk. Excluded losses have strikingly different effects on the demand for insurance than does background risk and lead to a modification of many standard insurance demand results. A number of new theorems concerning the effects of excluded losses are also presented. Risk-averse and prudent decision makers reduce their demand for insurance when excluded losses increase in size or riskiness. Excluded losses are a possible explanation for why many decision makers fail to take up insurance when it is offered.     

Social enterprise policy design: Constructing social enterprise in the UK and Korea

Taking the elusive definition of social enterprise as its starting point, this study seeks to understand the impact of government policies on the development of social enterprises in the national contexts of the UK and South Korea. The social construction of target populations is utilised as a theoretical framework in order to identify which factors influence government policy. A comparison of the two countries over a 14‐year period from 1997 to 2010 reveals that, despite very different contexts, governments in both countries have taken an instrumental approach to social enterprise. This tendency is more pronounced in Korea however, where government has limited the input of stakeholders and used an approval system to control access to the social enterprise name. The study concludes by recommending a more value‐oriented approach to social enterprise.     

Uncertain indemnity and the demand for insurance

This paper considers the demand for insurance in a model with uncertain indemnity. Uncertain indemnity tends to increase the demand for insurance for precautionary reasons, but it also tends to decrease the demand due to the risk created by indemnity uncertainty. When the coefficient of relative prudence is not too large, uncertain indemnity reduces the demand for insurance and partial coverage is optimal even at actuarially fair premiums. In addition, insurance may be an inferior good or a normal good, depending on the behavior of absolute risk aversion and the magnitude of the coefficient of relative risk aversion.     

"Risk" and UK Pension Reform

“Risk” is a word that has become common currency in the financial services industry in general, and in the pensions industry in particular. This article critically examines its use in the context of the current debate about UK pension reform. “Risk” is used by a broad spectrum of interests to discuss a wide range of pension issues in a variety of contexts. The article outlines key theoretical perspectives on the nature and construction, or conceptualization, of risk. Their relevance to debate and policy initiatives, particularly public pension policy, is examined. It is suggested that current government policy is failing to carry with it those to whom the policy applies; that reforms implicitly, if not explicitly, underestimate the importance of “security”; and that failure to conduct a much broader debate about the fundamental notions of work, retirement, saving and security may simply condemn the UK to interminable pension reform.