American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
An Empirical Examination of Information Barriers to Trade in Insurance
American Economic Review
vol. 89,
no. 4, September 1999
(pp. 827–846)
Abstract
This paper uses direct evidence to evaluate whether asymmetric information is a barrier to trade in the largest market for private insurance in the world: life insurance. We report several findings that seem difficult to reconcile with the conventional theory of insurance under asymmetric information. We conjecture that sellers may know their costs of production better than consumers in this market, as in those for most other products.Citation
Cawley, John, and Tomas Philipson. 1999. "An Empirical Examination of Information Barriers to Trade in Insurance." American Economic Review, 89 (4): 827–846. DOI: 10.1257/aer.89.4.827JEL Classification
- G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies
- D82 Asymmetric and Private Information