insurance, Microeconomics

Assignment Help:
#question.Question: Answer all parts (a, b, c, d, e & f).

Consider the following insurance market. There are two states of the world, B and G, and two types of consumers, H and L, who have probabilities pH =0.5 and pL =0.25 (high and low risk) respectively of being in state B. They have common endowment e=(eG,eB) = (£900, £100). The individuals have expected utility preferences over state-contingent consumptions c=(cG,cB), with common utility function u(ci)=ln(ci), where i=B,G. Insurance firms are risk-neutral profit maximisers and offer contracts in exchange for the individuals’ endowments.

Suppose the market is competitive.

a) Outline the definition of a competitive equilibrium of this market and explain why every contract, offered by every firm, must earn zero profit in equilibrium. [7 marks]

b) Suppose the information concerning individuals’ types is symmetric, but void. It is commonly known, however, that the proportion of low risk consumers is 0.4. Derive the equilibrium set of contracts. [5 marks]

c) Find the equilibrium set of contracts when information is symmetric and perfect. [5 marks]

Now suppose that information is asymmetric; individuals know their own type but insurance firms cannot distinguish between types. (Note: there does exist an equilibrium set of contracts for this market. You may make use of this fact without proving it).

d) Explain why it must be that, if {cH,cL} is the equilibrium set of contracts, then
cH ? cL. [4 marks]

e) Explain and derive the equilibrium contract offered to high risk individuals. [3 marks]

f) Explain and derive the equilibrium contract offered to low risk individuals. [9 marks]

Related Discussions:- insurance

Linkage of education with poverty and income distribution, Normal 0 ...

Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Microeconomics help, Review: Full, Anonymous: No Answer each of the follo...

Review: Full, Anonymous: No Answer each of the following questions using economic theory covered in this lesson. 1. Marginal revenue product is defined as the change in total

What is utility maximization according to consumer behavior, What is utilit...

What is utility maximization according to consumer behavior? Consumer Behavior: Utility Maximization A foundational hypothesis onto individual behavior within modern econ

Market supply labour, use a graphical illustration to describe briefly what...

use a graphical illustration to describe briefly what the influence of each of the following be on the market supply of labour,(a) an increase in immigrants, (b) a reduction in wag

Supply function, given the cost function as C=0.3Q3-2Q2+13Q+25,find the sup...

given the cost function as C=0.3Q3-2Q2+13Q+25,find the supply function

Purchasing power parity, Purchasing power parity: When PPP holds, the ...

Purchasing power parity: When PPP holds, the domestic currency has the same purchasing power at home and in any other country. PPP also implies that a foreign currency will de

Selective in exports, Selective in Exports: There are many industries ...

Selective in Exports: There are many industries where India has an advantage because of relatively lower costs of all forms of manpower whether it is professional or factory l

Estimating and predicting cost, Estimating and Predicting Cost * Estima...

Estimating and Predicting Cost * Estimates of future costs can be obtained from a cost function, which relates cost of production to level of output and other variables which t

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd