This paper addresses the coordination problem of price and quality setting insurers, arising on the health insurance market under regulated competition, as introduced, for instance, in the Netherlands in 2006. We use ...This paper addresses the coordination problem of price and quality setting insurers, arising on the health insurance market under regulated competition, as introduced, for instance, in the Netherlands in 2006. We use an experimental study to gain novel insights on the impact of the uncertainty about consumer preferences on the coordination problem. This fundamental uncertainty implies uncertainty about the identity of the payoff dominant equilibrium, while the risk dominant equilibrium is independent of the state of the world. The experimental results show that insurers are more likely to coordinate on the payoff dominant equilibrium under incomplete information. When insurers face not only strategic but also fundamental uncertainty in the coordination problem, they delay the response to the risk dominant strategy, and persist longer in trying to coordinate on the payoff dominant equilibrium. For the market we study, this implies that the co-ordination under incomplete information will result in consumers paying higher prices, in contrast to the original objectives of the regulated competition.展开更多
During the current economic transition, a number of cooperative medical insurance programs were tested in different rural regions in China. However, the programs did not extended to all parts of the country. In 1998, ...During the current economic transition, a number of cooperative medical insurance programs were tested in different rural regions in China. However, the programs did not extended to all parts of the country. In 1998, the cooperative medical system covered 22.2 percent of the population in high-income areas, but only less than 3 percent of the population in less developed areas (Editorial Committee of Health Almanac, 1999). These facts raise the following questions:展开更多
文摘This paper addresses the coordination problem of price and quality setting insurers, arising on the health insurance market under regulated competition, as introduced, for instance, in the Netherlands in 2006. We use an experimental study to gain novel insights on the impact of the uncertainty about consumer preferences on the coordination problem. This fundamental uncertainty implies uncertainty about the identity of the payoff dominant equilibrium, while the risk dominant equilibrium is independent of the state of the world. The experimental results show that insurers are more likely to coordinate on the payoff dominant equilibrium under incomplete information. When insurers face not only strategic but also fundamental uncertainty in the coordination problem, they delay the response to the risk dominant strategy, and persist longer in trying to coordinate on the payoff dominant equilibrium. For the market we study, this implies that the co-ordination under incomplete information will result in consumers paying higher prices, in contrast to the original objectives of the regulated competition.
文摘During the current economic transition, a number of cooperative medical insurance programs were tested in different rural regions in China. However, the programs did not extended to all parts of the country. In 1998, the cooperative medical system covered 22.2 percent of the population in high-income areas, but only less than 3 percent of the population in less developed areas (Editorial Committee of Health Almanac, 1999). These facts raise the following questions:
