|
|
 |
|
Research papers
-
Weather insured savings accounts - (pdf 1,17 MB)
Daniel Stein and Jeremy Tobacman
Research paper nº17
This paper uses a laboratory experiment in Gujarat, India to assess consumers' relative valuations of savings versus insurance when planning for risky rainfall. This is done in an attempt to measure potential demand for a new type of financial product that combines savings and rainfall insurance, a Weather Insured Savings Account (WISA). Experiments reveal that many participants prefer pure insurance or pure savings to any mixture of the two, and that this preference is most pronounced among those who are more risk averse. The results suggest that the introduction of a WISA is unlikely to be successful and mixed saving, insurance products require further investigation.
-
Impact of education on the willingness to pay for and knowledge of health insurance -
(pdf 1,44 MB)
Jahangir A. M. Khan
Research paper nº16
This paper assesses the impact of educational intervention on knowledge, attitude and willingness-to-pay for health insurance using occupational solidarity. It also explores the views of relevant actors on occupational solidarity-based health insurance. Based on multiple regression analysis and experimental design, the combined results of the experiments indicate that the educational intervention has improved the knowledge and willingness to pay for health insurance among informal sector workers in Bangladesh.
-
Health worker preferences for community-based health Insurance payment mechanisms:
a discrete choice experiment - (pdf 1,1 MB)
Paul Jacob Robyn, Till Bärnighausen, Aurélia Souares, Germain Savadogo, Brice Bicaba, Ali Sié and Rainer Sauerborn
Research paper nº15
Two important challenges in establishing and sustaining community-based insurance (CBI) schemes are low rates of community member enrollment and high lapse rates. These factors lead to low CBI coverage which in turn results in low levels of revenue for the risk carrier and limited risk-pooling, which leave CBI schemes financially and organizationally vulnerable to unexpected changes in incomes or high disease incidence. In this paper an experimental design is used to examine how the relationship between insurance providers and health care facilities - and more specifically payment mechanisms for services delivered by health workers - can influence uptake and renewals. The research discovers that the way health care workers are remunerated by the risk carrier can crucially determine CBI performance and quality of health services as payment mechanisms also influence the way healthcare is delivered. Based on the results from this experiment, a revised CBI payment system based on health workers preferences was introduced in the Nouna district of Burkina Faso in January 2011.
-
Is it all about money? A randomized evaluation of the impact of insurance literacy and marketing treatments on the demand for health microinsurance in Senegal -
(pdf 1,56 MB)
by Jacopo Bonan, Olivier Dagnelie, Philippe LeMay-Boucher and Michel Tenikue
Research paper nº14
In Senegal mutual health organizations (MHOs) have been present in the greater region of Thies for years. Despite their efforts and the benefits they bring to low-income population, in some areas, take up rates remain low. The authors of this paper ran an insurance literacy module, communicating the benefits of health microinsurance and explaining MHOs work, to a randomly selected sample of households in the city of Thies. The effects of the training, and three vouchers offering refunds and additional education were evaluated using a randomized control trial. The authors find that the insurance literacy module had no impact on the demand for health microinsurance, but that their marketing intervention had a significant effect on the take up decisions of households.
-
Risk preferences and demand for insurance under price uncertainty:
an experimental approach for cocoa farmers in Côte d'ivoire -
(pdf 1,37 MB)
by Euphrasie B.H. Kouame, Aka Narcisse Komenan
Research paper nº13
This paper analyses the willingness to pay of Côte d'Ivoire cocoa farmers for very affordable insurance and in which extent risk aversion determines demand. The methodology employed is an experimental gambling approach with real pay-offs and a
contingent valuation method to measure the farmers willingness to pay for the insurance. The findings reveal a relatively high level of risk aversion among Ivorian cocoa farmers with more than 45 percent of the households exhibiting severe to extreme risk aversion. Considerable interest in minimum price insurance has been found with 66 percent of farmers responding positively to the interest question.
It appears that farmers' demand for insurance is affected by a range of independent variables like household size, farming experience, monetary value of livestock, share of cocoa in total income, age of cocoa farm, farm size and social network as coping mechanism. More importantly, the study discovers a highly significant effect of risk aversion on farmers' insurance take-up decisions. In particular, high risk aversion was unexpectedly found to inhibit the demand for insurance. Finally, the analysis reveals that the actual premium farmers would actually be willing to pay to be covered is relatively low in spite of a large percentage of farmers stating their interest in the product.
-
Does microcredit increase child labour in absence of micro insurance? -
(pdf 1,39 MB)
by Dr Sayan Chakrabarty
Research paper nº12
This paper looks into whether access to microinsurance makes any difference in reducing child labour. The research compares three groups of households: those with no microcredit or microinsurance, those with microcredit but no microinsurance and those households with both microinsurance and microcredit. The study finds that in the case of extremely poor households with health microinsurance and/or life microinsurance in combination with microcredit, microinsurance has a significant effect on reducing child labour. However, it is also found that credit-life insurance has no significant influence. The practical policy consideration stemming from this research is that providing microcredit to extremely poor households is not enough to negate the use of child labour, however microcredit in combination with certain types of microinsurance can have a positive impact on reducing child labour.
-
Does microinsurance help the poor? Evidence from the targeted health microinsurance program in 2004-2008 -
(pdf 1,15 MB)
by Tra T.T. Pham and Thong L. Pham
Research paper nº11
This paper evaluates the Health Care Fund for the Poor (HCFP), a scheme that was initiated in Vietnam in 2003. The paper shows that, participation in the HCFP program reduced the out-of-pocket health care expenditure of poor participants, increased the intensity with which the poor sought health care and regular check-ups in public health facilities. The paper also reveals that the HCFP helped reduce the incidence of catastrophic spending when dealing with adverse health events. The paper addresses the possible selection bias of insurance participation by means of fixed-effects models and an instrument variable method within fixed-effects.
-
Health insurance participation: Evidence from Kenya -
(pdf 1 MB)
by Stefan Dercon, Jan Willem Gunning, Andrew Zeitlin, Claudia Cerrone and Simone Lombardini
Research paper nº10
This paper describes the main findings of a field experiment offering health insurance to tea farmers in Kenya. Insurance demand increases substantially when price discount is offered, but contrary to expectations, the education campaign did not have any significant effect on insurance demand despite the evidence of improved insurance literacy among participants. Also referral incentives had a negative influence on insurance demand which suggests that trust is an important element to promote insurance uptake. Additionally, reduction in price impacts significantly insurance demand, a lesson to be considered when pricing microinsurance products.
-
Ciblage des Pauvres dans le Financement Communautaire de Santé au Cameroun (in French) -
(pdf 1,33 MB)
by Fondo Sikod and Ibrahim Abba (The Universtity of Yaounde II)
Research paper nº9
This study evaluates the degree to which the poor have been targeted by community-based health insurance institutions in Cameroon. With the use of a logistical regression model, and the contingent evaluation method, data collected from three regions in Cameroon show that 90 percent of those who benefit from community health care financing, and having used a formal health care unit, fall within the first two revenue quintiles of the poorest. Also, this study found that annual contributions of approximately 7,000-9,000 francs CFA, would allow more people to participate, and thus increase the penetration of the system into the target population.
-
Social Networks and Insurance Take-Up: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in China -
(pdf 1,31 MB)
by Jing Cai, Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet (University of California and Berkeley)
Research paper nº8
This paper estimates the role of information in insurance take-up using data from a randomized experiment in rural China where information was either offered directly through financial education or accessed indirectly through social networks. Unlike previous studies, the experimental design allows to not only identify the causal effect of social networks, but also to differentiate the various channels through which they operate, including improvement of negotiating power, imitation, and social learning of insurance benefits. The results show that social networks have a large and significant effect on insurance take-up decisions mainly driven by the social learning of insurance benefits. The policy implication is that offering financial education to a subset of households in a village community selected for their strong friendship links with others, their recognized farming skills, and leadership roles, and relying on social networks to extend its effect on more farmers through social learning, is an effective way of improving insurance take-up.
-
Establishing an Index Insurance Triggers for Crop Loss in Northern Ghana -
(pdf 1,47 MB)
by The Katie School of Insurance
Research paper nº7
As a consequence of climate change, agriculture in many parts of the world has become a riskier business activity. Given the dependence on agriculture in developing countries, this increased risk has a potentially dramatic effect on the lives of people throughout the developing world especially as it relates to their financial inclusion and sustainable access to capital. This study analyse the relationships between rainfall per crop gestation period and crop yields and studies the likelihood of crop yield losses. It makes recommendations on how this information could be used to develop a trigger for index insurance to help mitigate the financial risks to farmers and lenders who make loans to farmers in Ghana. The paper concludes by describing limitations and challenges that must be overcome in order to develop such risk management tools and by describing the potential for crop loss index insurance based on area crop yield in northern Ghana.
-
Comprehensive Risk Cover through Remote Sensing Techniques in Agriculture Insurance for Developing Countries: A Pilot Project -
(pdf 2,13 MB)
by Mangesh Patankar (CIRM)
Research paper nº6
The paper observes the feasibility of implementing area yield insurance and weather insurance schemes for transferring financial risk and managing production risks. The objective included developing a composite insurance product based on normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and weather indices via a participatory approach; testing the yield loss estimation accuracy of such a product; and understanding people`s perceptions about the performance of the product. A relationship was found between the uptake of insurance and being above poverty line, subject to the buyer having heard about the insurer earlier, expecting a bad cropping season ahead, and having a close friend who has availed of the insurance scheme.
-
Microinsurance Utilization in Nicaragua: A Report on the Effects on Children, Retention, and Health Claims -
(pdf 1,25 MB)
by Anne Fitzpatrick (University of Michigan), Barbara Magnoni (EA Consultants), and Rebecca L. Thorton (University of Michigan)
Research paper nº5
The aim of the study was to extend analysis on a randomized evaluation of voluntary health insurance in Managua, Nicaragua. The paper presents evidence that this insurance product did not increase wasteful consumption: children who were insured but not sick at the beginning of the study reported fewer visits to all providers than those who were uninsured but not sick. Importantly, this insurance product did result in some targeting towards less healthy children, as those who were sick at the beginning of the study reported significantly more visits to all providers, including covered providers. The researchers also present retention results where they find that only 6 percent of those insured were retained 18 months after subsidies were no longer available. Lastly, they present some descriptive statistics of diagnoses at health centers and costs to discuss the implications of the main burdens of disease.
-
Microinsurance Product Design: Consumer Preferences in Kenya -
(pdf 1,19 MB)
by Job Harms (VU University Amsterdam)
Research paper nº4
This paper presents a survey-based study on preferences for microinsurance products in rural Kenya. More specifically, the study examines preferences for deductibles and rebates. Like consumers in developed countries, the majority of the respondents in this study have a preference for policies without deductibles and for policies with rebates. Risk aversion, financial literacy, health shocks, economic activities and prior experience with insurance affect these preferences. The results of the study suggest that higher uptake of microinsurance might be achieved by taking these preferences and their determinants into account in the design of microinsurance products.
-
The Economic Value of the Willingness to Pay for a Community-Based Prepayment Scheme in Rural Cameroon -
(pdf 1,03 MB)
by Hermann Pythagore Pierre Donfouet (University of Yaounde II) and Ephias M. Makaudze (University of Western Cape)
Research paper nº3
While limited access to health care in rural areas of Cameroon may be attributed to an inability to pay out-of-pocket costs for health care services, a Community-based prepayment scheme specifically designed to overcome this barrier and increase access to health care has received limited take-up among rural households in Cameroon. This study, led by researchers at the University of Yaounde II and the University of Western Cape, seeks to assess the economic value of a community-based prepayment health care system in Cameroon. The researchers use a willingness-to-pay approach based on the contingent valuation method. The results indicate that rural households are willing to pay on average FCFA 1010 or $2.15/person/month and further suggest that there is great demand for a community health care prepayment scheme in rural Cameroon.
-
 Health Care Utilization in Rural Senegal: The Facts Before the Extension of Health Insurance to Farmers -
(pdf 1,54 MB)
by Aurélia Lépine (University of Otago) and Alexis Le Nestour (University of Otago)
Research paper nº2
The aim of this study conducted by researchers at the University of Otago is to analyze the determinants of the use of curative care from qualified workers in Senegal, an area where 94% of the population does not have health insurance coverage. While most studies focus on characteristics of the demand for health care, this study also examines characteristics of the closest facility to analyze the impact of accessibility in addition to price and quality of medical services on health-seeking behaviour. The study reveals that household economic status, price, and quality of care are important determinants of the likelihood of seeking treatment from a qualified provider.
-
Marketing Complex Financial Products in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Rainfall Insurance in India -
(pdf 1,04 MB)
by Shawn Cole (Harvard Business School), Sarthak Gaurav (IGIDR), Jeremy Tobacman (Wharton School)
Research paper nº1
In this study, researchers from Harvard Business School, IGIDR and Wharton School conducted a field experiment in which rainfall insurance, a financial derivative for managing rainfall risk in agriculture whose payouts are linked to the amount of rainfall measured at a designated station, was offered to 600 farmers in India. A customized financial literacy and insurance education module communicating the need for personal financial management and formal hedging of yield risks was offered to randomly selected farmers. The effect of the financial literacy training and six marketing treatments are evaluated using a randomized control trial. The study provides some of the first evidence that financial education can influence financial behaviour. Results also reveal extremely low financial awareness, cognitive limitations and poor comprehension of rainfall insurance among the farmers being studied.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
