Health insurance and savings over the life cycle-a semiparametric smooth coefficient estimation

Shin-Yi Chou, Jin-Tan Liu and Cliff J. Huang
Additional contact information
Shin-Yi Chou: Department of Economics, Lehigh University, USA, and National Bureau of Economics Research, USA, Postal: Department of Economics, Lehigh University, USA, and National Bureau of Economics Research, USA
Jin-Tan Liu: Department of Economics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, and National Bureau of Economics Research, USA, Postal: Department of Economics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, and National Bureau of Economics Research, USA
Cliff J. Huang: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, USA, Postal: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, USA

Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2004, vol. 19, issue 3, pages 295-322

Abstract: Individuals save for future uncertain health care expenses. This is less efficient than pooling health risk through insurance. The provision of comprehensive health insurance may raise welfare by providing the missing market to smooth out consumption through the life cycle. We employ a semiparametric smooth coefficient model to examine the effects of the introduction of the National Health Insurance in Taiwan in 1995 on savings and consumption over the life cycle. The idea is to estimate the coefficients of health insurance which vary with age. Our results suggest that younger households are more sensitive to the risk reductions, and that they demonstrate a greater response in the reduction of their precautionary saving. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2004
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jae.735 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)
http://qed.econ.queensu.ca:80/jae/2004-v19.3/ Supporting data files and programs (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jae:japmet:v:19:y:2004:i:3:p:295-322

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www3.intersci ... e.jsp?issn=0883-7252

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied Econometrics is edited by M. Hashem Pesaran

More articles in Journal of Applied Econometrics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().