Death Spirals and Other Selection Problems with Amy Finkelstein

Amy Finkelstein is Professor of Economics at MIT. Amy’s research focuses on market failures and government intervention in insurance markets and she has won numerous awards include a MacArthur Fellowship and the John Bates Clark Medal. Amy is co-author with Liran Einav and Ray Fisman of the forthcoming book: “Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to do about it”.Buy the bookhttps://www.amazon.com/Risky-Business-Insurance-Markets-About/dp/0300253435/Amy on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Finkelsteinepisode on youtube: https://youtu.be/nvVlNSolE3sshow notes: https://notunreasonable.com/?p=7706When is government compelled insurance a good idea? 0:02How the public option or the mandate can create two different equilibria in the market. 8:53Dental insurance isn’t really an insurance product. 13:27The subsidy is not an objective, it’s a problem. 19:18How do we choose whether to pay attention to some of these issues or not? 25:47Why do we feel compelled to act when people are suffering from chronic conditions? 29:53What are the benefits of giving people cash instead of insurance? 33:44The problem of moral hazard in insurance. 39:51The concept of affinity and intermediation. 45:28Insurance can be learned the hard way. 51:02What happens when the price of insurance gets too high in compulsory markets. 54:46Why nobody ever wants to buy insurance. 1:01:06Some of the studies that contradict what you think you know. 1:05:23Twitter: @davecwrightSurprise, It's Insurance mailing listLinkedin Social Science of Insurance Essays