Home Adverse Selection and Insurance Contracting: A Rank-Dependent Utility Analysis
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Adverse Selection and Insurance Contracting: A Rank-Dependent Utility Analysis

  • Matthew Joseph Ryan and Rhema Vaithianathan
Published/Copyright: August 6, 2003

Stiglitz (1977) established three well-known features of monopoly insurance markets subject to adverse selection: (i) at least one market segment is served, despite the informational asymmetry; (ii) there is always some screening of risk classes; and (iii) efficiency is sacrificed to achieve screening. We modify Stiglitz’s model, replacing his expected utility assumption on consumer behavior with a version of Quiggin’s (1982) rank-dependent utility model that has received strong experimental support. We show that none of the conclusions (i)—(iii) is robust to this revision. In particular, asymmetric information need not lead to any loss in efficiency.

Published Online: 2003-8-6

©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 18.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.2202/1534-5971.1074/pdf?lang=en
Scroll to top button