TY  - JOUR
AU  - Einav,Liran
AU  - Finkelstein,Amy
AU  - Levin,Jonathan
TI  - Beyond Testing: Empirical Models of Insurance Markets
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15241
PY  - 2009
Y2  - August 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15241
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15241.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Liran Einav
Stanford University
Department of Economics
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA  94305-6072
Tel: 650/723-3704
Fax: 650/725-5702
E-Mail: leinav@stanford.edu

Amy Finkelstein
Department of Economics
MIT E52-383B
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/253-4149
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: afink@mit.edu

Jonathan D. Levin
Stanford University
Department of Economics
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA  94305-6072
Tel: 650/723-5962
E-Mail: jdlevin@stanford.edu
AB  - We describe recent advances in the empirical analysis of insurance markets. This new research proposes ways to estimate individual demand for insurance and the relationship between prices and insurer costs in the presence of adverse and advantageous selection. We discuss how these models permit the measurement of welfare distortions arising from asymmetric information and the welfare consequences of potential government policy responses. We also discuss some challenges in modeling imperfect competition between insurers, and outline a series of open research questions.
ER  -