Thomas G. Koch's HomepageEcon 155, Insurance Economics: Fall 2007Syllabus As the semester progresses, this web page will updated with information, news and links to outside readings. News and LinksFinal ExamThe final exam will be Wednesday, December 12th, from 12:01 to 3 pm. Slides of the course review on Friday will not be available before class. Final SlidesThe slides for the next three lectures can be found here. Medical Malpractice Insurance ReadingsA report on medical malpractice insurance by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation can be found here. Some related statistics can be found in this Department of Justice report here. Car Insurance SlidesThe car insurance slides can be found here. Exam 2 Grade DistributionClick here. Quiz 5You can find Quiz 5 here. More slidesProbability and expected utility; insurable interest; medical insurance. Slides, etc.The slides for each section covered on the second exam are available at the following links: Life Insurance, Property Insurance, Corporate Insurance, and Quiz 3. Quiz 4 and Paper InstructionsQuiz 4 can be found here. The writing assignment can come in two flavors: either a discussion of an insurance industry, or an analysis of a policy proposal regarding insurance. For the former, a paper should include (a) a brief discussion of what is being insured, (b) a determination of the extent of market failure, and (c) the potential sources of market failure particular to this market. The best papers of this kind will mix knowledge of the market with sound economic analysis using the concepts developed in class. Analysis of a policy proposal requires (a) an explanation of the proposal, (b) the market failure it proposes to resolve, and (c) an evaluation of its ability to achieve its goals. Exam One Grade DistributionThe grade distribution for Exam One can be found here. A variety of (failed) attempts to fit the grade distribution to known distributions can be found here Quiz 3The third quiz, on life insurance, can be found here. Medical Insurance Sample QuestionsThree example questions (and answers) for the medical insurance block can be found here. Readings for future lecturesThe lecture on the Uninsured for Medical Care uses data and analysis available from a Kaiser Family Foundation report on the uninsured. It is available here. On Friday, we will discuss Medicare and Medicaid. The paper on Medicaid crowd-out can be found here. The graph of expected future Medicare costs is taken from the Medicare Trustees 2007 report, available here (WARNING: LINKS TO .PDF). Insurable Interest QuizThe second quiz, on Insurable interest, can be found here. Probability and Expected Utility QuizThe first quiz, on Probability and Expected Utility, can be found here. Update: Two changes have been made to Question 2: (a) The PDF has been changed to make things a little more clear; and (b) the comparison has been switched to "old" versus "young." Wait ListStudents interested in signing up for the wait list can do so here. Course reader availableA course reader for this class is available at Alternative Copy Shop in Isla Vista. |
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