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Business and Economics > Insurance

You are looking at 1 - 10 of 15 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth x
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Cover Consumer Price Index Manual, 2020
Consumer Price Index Manual, 2020
Concepts and Methods
International Monetary Fund
,
International Labour Office
,
Statistical Office of the European Communities
,
United Nations
,
World Bank
, and
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

Abstract

The Consumer Price Index Manual: Concepts and Methods contains comprehensive information and explanations on compiling a consumer price index (CPI). The Manual provides an overview of the methods and practices national statistical offices (NSOs) should consider when making decisions on how to deal with the various problems in the compilation of a CPI. The chapters cover many topics. They elaborate on the different practices currently in use, propose alternatives whenever possible, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. The primary purpose of the Manual is to assist countries in producing CPIs that reflect internationally recommended methods and practices.

Keywords:
cconsumer price index; CPI; CPI Manual; CPI concepts; CPI methods; CPI practice; CPI best practice; CPI international recommendations; CPI weights; CPI data; CPI compilation; CPI calculation; index formulas; scanner data; web scraping; CPI outlets; CPI publication; CPI dissemination; CPI sampling; CPI items; CPI varieties; CPI missing prices; CPI quality adjustment; CPI linking; CPI and SNA; CPI overview; CPI data collection; CPI uses; CPI definitions; M&G; reference period; price change; price collector; price collection; CPI compiler
Cover Consumer Price Index Manual, 2020
Consumer Price Index Manual, 2020
Concepts and Methods
Brian Graf

Abstract

The Consumer Price Index Manual: Concepts and Methods contains comprehensive information and explanations on compiling a consumer price index (CPI). The Manual provides an overview of the methods and practices national statistical offices (NSOs) should consider when making decisions on how to deal with the various problems in the compilation of a CPI. The chapters cover many topics. They elaborate on the different practices currently in use, propose alternatives whenever possible, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. The primary purpose of the Manual is to assist countries in producing CPIs that reflect internationally recommended methods and practices.

Keywords:
cconsumer price index; CPI; CPI Manual; CPI concepts; CPI methods; CPI practice; CPI best practice; CPI international recommendations; CPI weights; CPI data; CPI compilation; CPI calculation; index formulas; scanner data; web scraping; CPI outlets; CPI publication; CPI dissemination; CPI sampling; CPI items; CPI varieties; CPI missing prices; CPI quality adjustment; CPI linking; CPI and SNA; CPI overview; CPI data collection; CPI uses; CPI definitions; M&G; reference period; price change; price collector; price collection; CPI compiler; Consumer price indexes; Price indexes; Consumption; Export fluctuations; Global; Europe; North America
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Impact of Community Based Health Insurance Schemes on Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Spending: Evidence from Rwanda
Andinet Woldemichael
,
Daniel Gurara
, and
Abebe Shimeles
Achieving universal health coverage, including financial risk protection and access to quality essential health-care services, is one of the main Sustainable Development Goals. In low-income countries, innovative and affordable health financing systems are key to realize these goals. This paper assesses the impacts of Community-Based Health Insurance Scheme in Rwanda on health-related financial risks using a nationally representative household survey data collected over a ten-year period. We find that the scheme significantly reduce annual per capita out-of-pocket spending by about 3,600 Rwandan Franc (about US$12) or about 83 percent of average per capita healthcare expenditure compared to the baseline level in 2000.The impacts however favor the rich as compared to the poor. The program also reduces the incidence of catastrophic healthcare spending significantly.
Keywords:
WP; normal distribution; sensitivity analysis; Healthcare spending; health insurance; low-income; Rwanda; CBHI scheme; CBHI enrollment; CBHI member household; CBHI effect; CBHI membership rate; Insurance; Income; Consumption; Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India
Robert M. Townsend
,
Ms. Shawn Cole
,
Mr. Jeremy Tobacman
,
Mr. Xavier Gine
,
Mr. James Ian Vickery
, and
Petia Topalova
Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? We use a series of randomized field experiments in rural India to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an innovative rainfall insurance product. Demand is significantly price sensitive, but widespread take-up would not be achieved even if the product offered a payout ratio comparable to U.S. insurance contracts. We present evidence suggesting that lack of trust, liquidity constraints and limited salience are significant non-price frictions that constrain demand. We suggest contract design improvements to mitigate these frictions.
Keywords:
WP; Gujarat video experiment; product endorsement; financial product; insurance demand; expected return; Gujarat video treatment; payout slope; product diffusion; Insurance; Household Finance; Trust; Liquidity Constraints; Economic Development; Andhra Pradesh sample; Insurance companies; Consumption; Liquidity; Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Cross-country Consumption Risk Sharing, a Long-run Perspective
Mr. Zhaogang Qiao
This paper estimates an empirical nonstationary panel regression model that tests long-run consumption risk sharing across a sample of OECD and emerging market (EM) countries. This is in contrast to the existing literature on consumption risk sharing, which is mainly about risks at business cycle frequency. Since our methodology focuses on identifying cointegrating relationships while allowing for arbitrary short-run dynamics, we can obtain a consistent estimate of long-run risk sharing while disregarding any short-run nuisance factors. Our results show that long-run risk sharing in OECD countries increased more than that in EM countries during the past two decades.
Keywords:
WP; time series; math
Cover IMF Working Papers
Search in the Labor Market under Imperfectly Insurable Income Risk
Mr. Mauro F Roca
This paper develops a general equilibrium model with unemployment and noncooperative wage determination to analyze the importance of incomplete markets when risk-averse agents are subject to idiosyncratic employment shocks. A version of the model calibrated to the U.S. shows that market incompleteness affects individual behavior and aggregate conditions: it reduces wages and unemployment but increases vacancies. Additionally, the model explains the average level of unemployment insurance observed in the U.S. A key mechanism is the joint influence of imperfect insurance and risk aversion in the wage bargaining. The paper also proposes a novel solution to solve this heterogeneous-agent model.
Keywords:
WP; unemployment insurance; labor market; replacement ratio
Cover IMF Working Papers
Irrational Exuberance in the U.S. Housing Market: Were Evangelicals Left Behind?
Mr. Christopher W. Crowe
The recent housing bust has reignited interest in psychological theories of speculative excess (Shiller, 2007). I investigate this issue by identifying a segment of the U.S. population-evangelical protestants-that may be less prone to speculative motives, and uncover a significant negative relationship between their population share and house price volatility. Evangelicals' focus on Biblical prophecy could account for this difference, since it may enable them to interpret otherwise negative events as containing positive news, dampening the response of house prices to shocks. I provide evidence for this channel using a popular internet measure of "prophetic activity" and a 9/11 event study. I also analyze survey data covering religious beliefs and asset holding, and find that 'end times' beliefs are associated with a one-third decline in net worth, consistent with these beliefs providing a form of psychic insurance (Scheve and Stasavage, 2006a and 2006b) that reduces asset demand.
Keywords:
WP; standard deviation; house prices; economics of Religion; asset price cycles; share of evangelical; dependent variable; growth series; price appreciation; population share; price volatility; evangelical area; Housing prices; Housing; Asset bubbles; Insurance; Middle East; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Macroeconomic Impact of Healthcare Financing Alternatives: Reform Options for Hong Kong SAR
International Monetary Fund
With much healthcare publicly funded, Hong Kong's rapidly aging population will significant raise fiscal pressure over coming decades. We ask what the implications are of meeting these costs by public funding, or private funding voluntarily or through mandates. Our simulations suggest that without early reform, these costs quickly become unsustainable. Prefunding is key. Whether this is done through the public system or through mandatory private provision is less important. Voluntary schemes are likely to result in insufficient savings without tax incentives. Even then, voluntary accounts are unlikely to yield better macroeconomic outcomes, while mandates tend to produce more equitable consumption.
Keywords:
WP; cost; financing; healthcare cost; GDP; spending
Cover IMF Working Papers
Life Expectancy and Income Convergence in the World: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis
Mr. Kenichi Ueda
There is world-wide convergence in life expectancy, despite little convergence in GDP per capita. If one values longer life much more than material happiness, the world living standards may this have already converged substantially. This paper introduces the concept of the dynastic general equilibrium value of life to measure welfare gains from the increase in life expectancy. A calibration study finds sizable welfare gains, but these gains hardly mitigate the large inequality among countries. A conventional GDP-based measure remains a good approximation for (non) convergence in world living standards, even when adjusted for changes in life expectancy.
Keywords:
WP; life expectancy; physical capital; depreciation rate; law of motion
Cover IMF Working Papers
Implications of More Precise Information for Technological Development and Welfare
Mr. Bernhard Eckwert
and
Mr. Burkhard Drees
This paper analyzes the dynamic interactions between the precision of information, technological development, and welfare within an overlapping generations model. More precise information about idiosyncratic production shocks has ambiguous effects on technological progress and welfare, which depend critically on the risk sharing capacity of the economy's financial system. For example, we show that with efficient risk sharing more precise information adversely affects the equilibrium risk allocation and creates a negative uncertainty-related welfare effect, at the same time as it accelerates technological progress and increases R&D investment.
Keywords:
WP