RISK SHARING IN VILLAGE ECONOMIES REVISITED

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bold, Tessa; Broer, Tobias
• 署名单位: Stockholm University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvab043
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 3207-3248
• 关键词: Limited commitment; informal insurance; consumption; models; US

摘要

We quantitatively evaluate a model of insurance with limited commitment where the requirement that contracts be immune to deviations by subcoalitions makes group size endogenous, as proposed by Genicot and Ray. We compare the model's predictions to panel data from rural Indian villages. Apart from predicting a realistic degree of insurance, the model captures the evidence along two new dimensions: First, the largest coalition-proof groups are substantially smaller than typical villages. Second, with strong insurance in small groups, individual consumption responds symmetrically to income rises and falls, while alternative models predict strong counterfactual asymmetry.