Information Entry And Regulation In Markets For Life Insurance

From the back cover: In this penetrating analysis, Professor Mathewson probes four pertinent questions relating to markets for life insurance. He explains the observed variability in the price of alternative life insurance policies by developing a model of consumer choice in life insurance and tests the implications of this model for price levels and price variability. He tests for the presence of natural monopoly elements in the industry, explaining the diversity in the size of life insurance firms and the potential economic advantage of large firms over small. He develops a theory of the role of agents to determine whether there is excessive sales effort in the marketing of insurance. Finally, he contends that there is scope for an expanded government policy on life insurance aside from solvency regulation, and advocates a publicly subsidized information policy to aid consumers in their decisions.

This study uses a simple model of information gathering to generate policy recommendations concerning education in Ontario, especially at the post-secondary level. The schools are viewed as helping students discover jobs matched to their abilities, and policy prescriptions are offered from that standpoint. After examining earlier economic models of education – seeing it in terms of human capital and signalling – the authors analyse their informational model. In the light of the three theories of education, they then proceed to examine the appropriate role of government in the education market, and offer their policy recommendations. In addition, trends in the structure of education over the last two decades are studied and explained from the economic point of view. They argue that too much has been spent on formal education and not enough on on-the-job-training, but the answer is not more government intervention or vocationalism. Education policy should encourage free choice and an increasing ability to match interests or skills with jobs. Vocationalism merely hinders the latter and endangers economic well-being in the long term.

No two markets for voluntary health insurance (VHI) are identical. All differ in some way because they are heavily shaped by the nature and performance of publicly financed health systems and by the contexts in which they have evolved. This volume contains short structured profiles of markets for VHI in 34 countries in Europe. These are drawn from European Union member states plus Armenia Iceland Georgia Norway the Russian Federation Switzerland and Ukraine. The book is aimed at policy-makers and researchers interested in knowing more about how VHI works in practice in a wide range of contexts. Each profile written by one or more local experts identifies gaps in publicly-financed health coverage describes the role VHI plays outlines the way in which the market for VHI operates summarises public policy towards VHI including major developments over time and highlights national debates and challenges. The book is part of a study on VHI in Europe prepared jointly by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. A companion volume provides an analytical overview of VHI markets across the 34 countries.

Accurate, consistent and timely data on global trends in population age structure are critical for assessing current and future needs with respect to population ageing and for setting policy priorities to promote the well-being of the growing number and share of older persons in the population. This publication presents the highlights of the World Population Ageing 2015 report, which summarizes the trends in population ageing drawn from the latest United Nations estimates and projections of population by age and sex of 233 countries or areas, as published in World Population Prospects: the 2015 Revision. The present Highlights focuses in particular on the period from 2015 to 2030, the implementation period identified for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and discusses some implications of trends in the number and share of older people for development planning.