The Crowding-Out Effect of Formal Insurance on Informal Risk Sharing: An Experimental Study
65 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2011 Last revised: 23 Jun 2019
Date Written: April 23, 2014
Abstract
This paper investigates the crowding-out effect of formal insurance on informal risk-sharing arrangements via theory and laboratory experiment. Our model and simulation predict that the crowding out of private transfers is often more than one-for-one and will reduce the total risk coverage. Furthermore, the existence of a moderate degree of altruism exaggerates the crowding-out effect, especially when there is an ex-ante income inequality. These predictions are mostly supported by the laboratory experiment, except that the crowding-out effect is not more than one-for-one, and hence the total risk coverage is not significantly reduced by formal insurance.
Keywords: informal risk sharing, formal insurance, crowding-out effect
JEL Classification: C91, D81, O17
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Consumption Smoothing? Livestock, Insurance and Drought in Rural Burkina Faso
-
Human Capital, Productivity, and Labor Allocation in Rural Pakistan
-
Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya
By Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, ...
-
Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya
By Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, ...
-
Nudging Farmers to Utilize Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya
By Esther Duflo, Michael Kremer, ...
-
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
By Shawn Allen Cole, Xavier Giné, ...
-
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
By Shawn Allen Cole, Xavier Giné, ...
-
Consumption Risk, Technology Adoption, and Poverty Traps: Evidence from Ethiopia
By Stefan Dercon and Luc Christiaensen
-
Consumption Risk, Technology Adoption and Poverty Traps: Evidence From Ethiopia
By Stefan Dercon and Luc Christiaensen
-
Selection and Comparative Advantage in Technology Adoption
By Tavneet Suri