Rural migrants' participation in old-age insurance: a case study of the inter-provincial migrant workers from Sichuan, China

Old-age pension, a fundamental part of the Chinese social security system, is perceived by the Chinese government as the last support for rural-to-urban migrant workers upon retreating from the labor market. Using survey data collected by the authors, this paper examines a host of factors which influence migrant workers' participation in the old-age scheme. The result shows that individual characteristics, employment status, attitudes toward old-age support and perception of the old-age pension system significantly differentiate two groups of migrant workers between those that have participated in and their counterparts who have not participated in the old-age pension schemes. Among a number of factors, age, educational attainment, holding labor contract, etc. are found to be significant factors influencing migrants' behavior participating(or not participating) the available age-pension schemes. Policy implications for how to improve the rate of participation in existing old-age pension schemes among migrant workers are drawn from the findings.

A Study Tour of Old-age Insurance Systems In Switzerland and France

A Chinese delegation of leaders from provincial and municipal departments of civil affairs and retired cadres and homes for the aged visited Switzerland and France from April 18 to 28,and attended a seminar on the old-age insurance system in Switzerland.The visit,to learn of the successful experience of developed European countries,was made at the invitation of the Swiss-Chinese Association and the China-Spain Association of International Culture and Friendship and organized by the CPAFFC.

Willingness to Pay for Antiretroviral Drugs Covered by Medical Insurance among People Living with HIV in 18 Chinese Cities

Objective Antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance have been gradually used by people living with human immunodeficiency virus(PLWH)in recent years in China.This study aimed to analyze their willingness to pay(WTP)for antiretroviral drugs.Methods A mixed-methods study design involving a cross-sectional survey and in-depth interviews was conducted.A cross-sectional survey was performed to collect data on the general characteristics,economic status,antiretroviral therapy(ART)status,and WTP of PLWH in 18 Chinese cities from August 2022 to February 2023.Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the factors associated with WTP.Representatives of PLWH were interviewed via in-depth interviews,and the data were thematically analyzed.Results Among the 941 PLWH,271(28.80%)were willing to pay for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance.For basic medical insurance for urban and rural residents,PLWH with the following characteristics were more willing to pay:an educational level of senior high school or technical secondary school,having an undergraduate degree or higher,frequently working away from their hometowns,and homosexual transmission.Off-farm workers and recipients of government medical aid were more unwilling to pay.For basic medical insurance for urban employees,PLWH with the following characteristics were more willing to pay:frequently working away from their hometowns;homosexual transmission;personal annual income≥100,000 CNY;and adverse events of antiretroviral drugs.The main reasons for PLWH’s WTP for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance were that the drugs had fewer adverse events and were easier to administer.The main reasons for PLWH’s unwillingness to pay were financial difficulties and privacy concerns.Conclusion Nearly one-third of PLWH are willing to pay for antiretroviral drugs covered by medical insurance.In the future,PLWH with a high WTP can be guided to use these drugs.

The Extreme Machine Learning Actuarial Intelligent Agricultural Insurance Based Automated Underwriting Model

The paper presents an innovative approach towards agricultural insurance underwriting and risk pricing through the development of an Extreme Machine Learning (ELM) Actuarial Intelligent Model. This model integrates diverse datasets, including climate change scenarios, crop types, farm sizes, and various risk factors, to automate underwriting decisions and estimate loss reserves in agricultural insurance. The study conducts extensive exploratory data analysis, model building, feature engineering, and validation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Additionally, the paper discusses the application of robust tests, stress tests, and scenario tests to assess the model’s resilience and adaptability to changing market conditions. Overall, the research contributes to advancing actuarial science in agricultural insurance by leveraging advanced machine learning techniques for enhanced risk management and decision-making.

Does community-based health insurance affect lifestyle and timing of treatment seeking behavior?Evidence from Ethiopia

Objectives This paper aims to investigate the effects of enrollment in the Ethiopian community-based health insurance(CBHI)scheme on household preventive care activities and the timing of treatment-seeking behavior for illness symptoms.There is growing concern about the financial sustainability of CBHI schemes in developing countries.However,few empirical studies have identified potential contributors,including ex-ante and ex-post moral hazards.Methods We implement a household fixed-effect panel data regression model,drawing on three rounds of household survey data collected face to face in districts where CBHI scheme is operational and in districts where it is not operational in Ethiopia.Results The findings show that enrolment in CBHI does not significantly influence household behaviour regarding preventive care activities such as water treatment before drinking and handwashing before meals.However,CBHI significantly increases delay in treatment-seeking behaviour for diseases symptoms.Particularly,on average,we estimate about 4-6 h delay for malaria symptoms,a little above 4 h for tetanus,and 10-11 h for tuberculosis among the insured households.Conclusions While there is evidence that CBHI improve the utilization of outpatient or primary care services,our study suggests that insured members may wait longer before visiting health facilities.This delay could be partly due to moral hazard problems,as insured households,particularly those from rural areas,may consider the opportunity costs associated with visiting health facilities for minor symptoms.Overall,it is essential to identify the primary causes of delays in seeking medical services and implement appropriate interventions to encourage insured individuals to seek early medical attention.

China Continues to Be World’s Second Largest Insurance Market

Allianz Group recently released the Allianz Global Insurance Report,predicting that China will consolidate its position as the world’s second largest insurance market in the next decade.The report analyzes the business performance of the global insurance market in 2023 and forecasts the development direction and trends of the global insurance industry in the next decade.2023:A year of significant growth According to the report,in 2023,the global insurance industry grew by an impressive 7.5%,which is the fastest rate since the pre-Global Financial Crisis(GFC)era.

Telematics as a Transformative Agent for the Zimbabwean Auto Insurance Ecosystem

Zimbabwe has witnessed the evolution of Information Communication Technology (ICT). The vehicle population soared to above 1.2 million hence rendering the Transport and Insurance domains complex. Therefore, there is a need to look at ways that can augment conventional Vehicular Management Information Systems (VMIS) in transforming business processes through Telematics. This paper aims to contextualise the role that telematics can play in transforming the Insurance Ecosystem in Zimbabwe. The main objective was to investigate the integration of Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) with vehicle tracking solutions provided by technology companies like Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe, aiming to align customer billing with individual risk profiles and enhance the synergy between technology and insurance service providers in the motor insurance ecosystem. A triangulation through structured interviews, questionnaires, and literature review, supported by Information Systems Analysis and Design techniques was conducted. The study adopted a case study approach, qualitatively analyzing the complexities of the Telematics insurance ecosystem in Zimbabwe, informed by the TOGAF framework. A case-study approach was applied to derive themes whilst applying within and cross-case analysis. Data was collected using questionnaires, and interviews. The findings of the research clearly show the importance of Telematics in modern-day insurance and the positive relationship between technology and insurance business performance. The study, therefore revealed how UBI can incentivize positive driver behavior, potentially reducing insurance premiums for safe drivers and lowering the incidence of claims against insurance companies. Future work can be done on studying the role of Telematics in combating highway crime and corruption.

Transcending Labor Relations:A Study on the Mechanisms for Protecting Social Insurance Rights and Interests of Workers in New Business Forms——An Empirical Analysis Based on Judicial Cases

Abstract:With the rise of new business forms,the traditional industrial-era model of binding social insurance to labor relations is facing unprecedented challenges.In the context of these new busi-ness forms,whether the protection of workers’social insurance rights and interests can be“decoupled from labor relations”has become a hotly debated topic in academia,with“the ability to establish labor relations”emerging as a key variable influencing government depart-ments’policy choices on classified social insurance coverage.Based on this,the paper constructs a theoretical model of the correlation be-tween social insurance and labor relations to analyze cases concern-ing the protection of social insurance rights and interests of workers in new business forms.It examines the advantages and disadvantages of binding social insurance to labor relations and suggests promoting so-cial insurance policy innovation by transcending labor relations.The paper advocates abandoning the path dependency that starts with la-bor relations and clarifying the theoretical basis that workers’access to social insurance rights should be based on labor rather than em-ployment.To adapt to the profit model of new business forms,it pro-poses establishing a rule of“proportional responsibility for commis-sions,”where the social insurance contribution base is determined by the proportion and amount of corporate commissions.By reasonably setting rates,it will protect the healthy development of new business forms in a balanced manner.In this way,enterprises can share social insurance responsibilities according to unified rules without worrying about being classified as having a labor relationship,which helps fully protect workers’social insurance rights and interests and promotes fair competition and healthy development among enterprises.

An Analysis and Prediction of Health Insurance Costs Using Machine Learning-Based Regressor Techniques

One of the most significant annual expenses that a person has is their health insurance coverage. Health insurance accounts for one-third of GDP, and everyone needs medical treatment to varying degrees. Changes in medicine, pharmaceutical trends, and political factors are only a few of the many factors that cause annual fluctuations in healthcare costs. This paper describes how a system may analyse a person’s medical history to display their insurance plans and make predictions about their health insurance premiums. The performance of four ML models—XGBoost, Lasso, KNN, and Ridge—is evaluated using R2-score and RMSE. The analysis of medical health insurance cost prediction using Lasso regression, Ridge regression, and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN), and XGBoost (XGB) highlights notable differences in performance. KNN has the lowest R2-score of 55.21 and an RMSE of 4431.1, indicating limited predictive ability. Ridge Regression improves on this by an R2-score of 78.38 but has a higher RMSE of 4652.06. Lasso Regression slightly edges out Ridge with an R2-score of 79.78, yet it suffers from an advanced RMSE of 5671.6. In contrast, XGBoost excels with the highest R2-score of 86.81 and the lowermost RMSE of 4450.4, demonstrating superior predictive accuracy and making it the most effective model for this task. The best method for accurately predicting health insurance premiums was XGBoost Regression. The findings beneficial for policymakers, insurers, and healthcare providers as they can use this information to allocate resources more efficiently and enhance cost-effectiveness in the healthcare industry.

Optimal Insurance with Background Risk under the Ambiguity and Belief Heterogeneity Structure

In this paper, we discuss the optimal insurance in the presence of background risk while the insured is ambiguity averse and there exists belief heterogeneity between the insured and the insurer. We give the optimal insurance contract when maxing the insured’s expected utility of his/her remaining wealth under the smooth ambiguity model and the heterogeneous belief form satisfying the MHR condition. We calculate the insurance premium by using generalized Wang’s premium and also introduce a series of stochastic orders proposed by [1] to describe the relationships among the insurable risk, background risk and ambiguity parameter. We obtain the deductible insurance is the optimal insurance while they meet specific dependence structures.

A Market Model of Risk Transfer and Insurance

We introduce a model of a market where risk-averse consumers pay a fee to transfer their future losses to one or more firms.The future loss of each consumer is stochastic with a unique,known mean and variance.The law of large numbers allows the firms to know with certainty the expected aggregate loss of the consumers to whom they sell.The model could describe the behavior of agents in the market for property insurance where an insurance company sells a single type of policy to a specific group of consumers based upon the expected losses of those consumers and their willingness to pay for coverage.The model demonstrates how a single firm can choose the optimal segment of the market to which they sell a policy and how that choice might change when the distribution of consumers and their risk aversion changes.The model also demonstrates how two firms might engage in a cooperative strategy and share the market.The model shows how a firm entering the market will find it more advantageous to target a segment of the market with consumers that have a lower expected loss.

Analysis of Drug Medical Insurance Access Pricing Based on the Perspective of Binary Equilibrium

Objective To study the influencing factors in the process of national medical insurance negotiation and drug pricing from the dualistic equilibrium perspective,and to provide reference for the harmonious management of drug pricing in China.Methods Through the literature analysis and policy review,the pricing subject,pricing basis and price control system in the pricing process of medical-accessed medicines were analyzed from the perspective of binary equilibrium and harmonious management.Results and Conclusion It is found that four balances in the drug pricing process,two balances in pricing basis and three balances in price control system need to be considered,respectively.Drug pricing is the key content of national medical insurance access,which is also the hotspot of the policy in the pharmaceutical fields in recent years.Drug pricing not only reflects the value of drugs,but also reflects a lot of top-level designs of binary equilibriums in medical insurance policy.While the rational design of drug pricing requires the joint efforts of the government,pharmaceutical companies and relevant experts to comprehensively consider many equilibriums,so as to improve the relevant systems.

Research on the Establishment of a Long-Term Care System for the Elderly with Alzheimer’s Disease Under the Background of Long-Term Care Insurance: A Literature Review

With the aging of the country’s population structure,the problem of social pensions is becoming more and more serious.As for the issue of social pension,the elderly with Alzheimer’s disease are a special group,and the issue of care services for these elderly has attracted widespread attention from society.However,judging from the current level of social security provided to the elderly with dementia in the country,there is a serious imbalance between supply and demand.Therefore,this problem needs to be solved urgently and is of great significance for further improving the country’s social pension security system.Routine care is limited to hospitals and mainly focuses on the patient’s condition.Patients fail to receive comprehensive care services and the effect is not ideal.Therefore,in order to improve patients’cognitive function and quality of life,and learn from international experience,a“community-institution-home”three-dimensional linkage care model based on long-term care insurance can be established.The application of this model can effectively solve and further improve the country’s elderly care and social security system.

Multistage Stochastic Programming Model for the Portfolio Problem of a Property-Liability Insurance Company

The current portfolio model for property-liability insurance company is only single period that can not meet the practical demands of portfolio management, and the purpose of this paper is to develop a multiperiod model for its portfolio problem. The model is a multistage stochastic programming which considers transaction costs, cash flow between time periods, and the matching of asset and liability; it does not depend on the assumption for normality of return distribution. Additionally, an investment constraint is added. The numerical example manifests that the multiperiod model can more effectively assist the property-liability insurer to determine the optimal composition of insurance and investment portfolio and outperforms the single period one.

Obstacles and Countermeasures for Policyoriented Agricultural Insurance Development in the Context of Agricultural Modernization

Agricultural insurance is a key impetus for agricultural modernization. How- ever, there are some problems on the aspect, including deficiency of law supports and top system design, less recognition on insurance of farmers and low effective demands of agricultural insurance market, huge agricultural risks and insufficient supply from agricultural insurance market, and shortage of reinsurance support and disaster risk desertification, hardly to deal with heavy disasters. Therefore, some countermeasures were proposed, including to formulate agricultural insurance laws and establish specific agricultural insurance management institutions, to reinforce promotion and improve premium subsidy system in order to increase market de- mands, to increase tax preference and operating costs, improve insurance services and enhance effective supply in market and to construct a risk diversification system of agricultural heavy disaster.

GAMES ANALYSIS OF INSURANCE PRICING UNDER CONSIDERING MORAL HAZARD

This paper first gives an explanation of moral hazard in the insurance field,and then offers a game theory model about insurance pricing according to the non zero sum game analysis between the insurer and the insured when moral hazard exists.On the basis of the game analysis,this paper also presents a lowest pricing formula and studies the cost of moral hazard simultaneously.

Crop Insurance, Premium Subsidy and Agricultural Output

This paper studied the effects of crop insurance on agricultural output with an economic growth model. Based on Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans （RCK） model, a basic model of agriculture economic growth was developed. Extending the basic model to incorporate uncertainty and insurance mechanism, a risk model and a risk-insurance model were built to study the inlfuences of risk and crop insurance on agricultural output. Compared with the steady states of the three models, the following results are achieved：（i） agricultural output decreases if we introduce uncertainty into the risk-free model;（ii） crop insurance promotes agriculture economic growth if insurance mechanism is introduced into the risk model;（iii） premium subsidy constantly improves agricultural output. Our contribution is that we studied the effects of crop insurance and premium subsidy from the perspective of economic growth in a dynamic framework, and proved the output promotion of crop insurance theoretically.

Farmers using insurance and cooperatives to manage agricultural risks: A case study of the swine industry in China

Purchasing agricultural insurance and joining agricultural cooperatives are two prevalent instruments used by farmers in China for dealing with agricultural risks. Data from 443 swine farmers in Jiangsu and Henan provinces of China were collected. Factors affecting the farmers’ decision to purchase agricultural insurance and join agricultural cooperatives were assessed. The possibility of simultaneous use of both instruments and the potential correlation between these two decisions was considered as well. Results showed that the farmers’ decision to use agricultural insurance and cooperatives was positively correlated, indicating that farmers who purchased agricultural insurance which mainly used to mitigate production risks were more likely to join agricultural cooperatives which more used to share market risks, and vice versa. Farmers’ knowledge of swine insurance and trust in the local government positively impacted the purchase of agricultural insurance, while education, years involved in swine production and scale of swine production positively impacted farmers joining agricultural cooperatives.

Engineering models for catastrophe risk and their application to insurance

Internationally earthquake insurance,like all other insurance (fire,auto),adopted actuarial approach in the past, which is,based on historical loss experience to determine insurance rate.Due to the fact that earthquake is a rare event with severe consequence,irrational determination of premium rate and lack of understanding scale of potential loss led to many insurance companies insolvent after Northridge earthquake in 1994. Along with recent advances in earth science,computer science and engineering,computerized loss estimation methodologies based on first principles have been developed to the point that losses from destructive earthquakes can be quantified with reasonable accuracy using scientific modeling techniques. This paper intends to introduce how engineering models can assist to quantify earthquake risk and how insurance industry can use this information to manage their risk in the United States and abroad.

Potato farmers’ preference for agricultural insurance in China: An investigation using the choice experimental method

Potato insurance plays an important role in transferring agricultural risks to promote the potato staple strategy. Understanding farmers’ real preferences for potato insurance attributes is important to improve the potato insurance. In this study, a choice experiment was designed with attributes such as peril, minimum compensation ratio for production loss, types of crops covered by insurance, annual premium per mu after subsidy, and complexity of claims procedures. We constructed a mixed logit model based on a questionnaire survey of 362 potato farmers’ choices of insurance attributes from 24 villages in Dingxi City of Gansu Province using random sampling. The results show that:(1) farmers prefer agricultural insurance with widely perils including output price drop and input cost risk;(2) farmers who have suffered plant disease and insect and pest damage are willing to pay a high premium for the insurance with a high compensation ratio and several types of crops covered;full-time farmers and large-scale farmers preferred insurance products with low complexity of claims procedures. Therefore, new potato insurance design could be considered specifically for different farmer groups such as those who had previous disaster experiences, and large-or small-scale farm operations.