Microeconomics, Microeconomics

Assignment Help:
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:- Microeconomics

How multinational companies help developing countries, Evaluate the role of...

Evaluate the role of multinational companies in helping developing countries to achieve economic growth/development. Explanation of growth; enhance in GDP per time period Ex

Employee ownership stock plan (esop), A trust is build to acquire shares in...

A trust is build to acquire shares in organizations for subsequent allocation to employees over time by time.

Determination of exchange rates, DETERMINATION OF EXCHANGE RATES: When...

DETERMINATION OF EXCHANGE RATES: When we study the determinants of exchange rates, we must distinguish between long run determinants and short run because the determinants in

What is optimal choice of consumer according to behavior, What is optimal c...

What is optimal choice of consumer according to consumer behavior? Consumer's Optimal Choice: In the fundamental problem of preference maximization, the set of affo

Analysis utility, difference between the cardinal analysis theory and ordin...

difference between the cardinal analysis theory and ordinal theory

TYPES OF POLLUTANTS , TYPES OF POLLUTANTS In general the air pollutants c...

TYPES OF POLLUTANTS In general the air pollutants can be sub divided into 2 catexampleories: Primary pollutants and Secondary pollutants Primary pollutants These are the poll

Depletion and depreciation, During its current tax year (year one) a pharma...

During its current tax year (year one) a pharmaceutical company purchased a mixing tank that had a fair market price of $120,000. It replaced the an older, smaller mixing tank that

Volume of trade, Volume of Trade: It relates to the size of internatio...

Volume of Trade: It relates to the size of international transactions. Since a large number of commodities enter in international transactions and their aggregate can be found

Physical accounting, Normal 0 false false false EN-IN ...

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

Marginal output, If the marginal product of labor is 45 units of output and...

If the marginal product of labor is 45 units of output and the marginal products of capital is 56 units of output while the wage rate is $20 per worker and the cost of capital is $

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