eprintid: 24531
rev_number: 13
eprint_status: archive
userid: 3114
dir: disk0/00/02/45/31
datestamp: 2018-05-23 09:34:58
lastmod: 2019-02-21 13:12:54
status_changed: 2018-05-23 09:34:58
type: workingPaper
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Schleicher, Michael
creators_name: Klonner, Stefan
creators_name: Sauerborn, Rainer
creators_name: Sié, Alie
creators_name: Souares, Aurélia
title: The Demand for Health Insurance in a Poor Economy: Evidence from Burkina Faso
subjects: ddc-330
divisions: i-181000
abstract: We investigate the properties of health insurance demand in Burkina Faso, where we offered poor households a voluntary health insurance product at half the usual price. The targeting procedure we implemented delivers a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, which identifies the price elasticity of demand for health insurance as well as associated selection effects. We find large price elasticities among urban households, whereas the demand of rural households is price-inelastic. There are important selection effects, with widowed male household heads being most price-sensitive. Correlating these heterogeneous effects with survey data on informal transfers and health expenditures, our results suggest that informal risk-sharing largely crowds out formal insurance and that a single insurance product may fail to   align with poor households' small health budgets. We find no adverse selection into health insurance.
date: 2018-05
id_scheme: DOI
id_number: 10.11588/heidok.00024531
schriftenreihe_cluster_id: sr-3
schriftenreihe_order: 0648
ppn_swb: 1023611465
own_urn: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-245317
language: eng
bibsort: SCHLEICHERTHEDEMANDF201805
full_text_status: public
series: Discussion Paper Series, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics
volume: 0648
place_of_pub: Heidelberg
citation:   Schleicher, Michael ; Klonner, Stefan ; Sauerborn, Rainer ; Sié, Alie ; Souares, Aurélia  (2018) The Demand for Health Insurance in a Poor Economy: Evidence from Burkina Faso.  [Working paper]     
document_url: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/24531/1/Schleicher%2C%20Klonner%20et%20al.pdf