Are Invisible Hands Good Hands in Health Care Markets? Extension

作者：Wang, Hao^*

来源：B E Journal of Theoretical Economics, 2017, 17(1): 20150050.

DOI：10.1515/bejte-2015-0050

• Bernoulli utility function
• health insurance
• social welfare

A previous study finds that increased competition in health care markets improves social welfare, although consumers use "too much" health care when they have health insurance. The analysis assumes that consumers have a constant Arrow-Pratt coefficient of absolute risk aversion. This note shows that this finding can be extended to the case where consumers are simply risk averse. Furthermore, if insurers offered insurance policies with slightly lower usage prices than the equilibrium level, social welfare would be improved.

• 出版日期2017-1
• 单位北京大学