Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/203489 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2019: 30 Jahre Mauerfall - Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft - Session: Economic Theory - Information and Uncertainty No. G01-V1
Publisher: 
ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel, Hamburg
Abstract: 
Some consumption opportunities, e.g. medical treatments, are both indivisible and only valuable in particular states of nature. The existence of such state-dependent indivisible consumption opportunities influences a person's risk attitudes. In general, people are not risk averse anymore even if utility from divisible consumption is concave. I propose a definition of insurance in the context of state-dependent preferences and investigate the different motives underlying insurance demand. The same reasons that rule out risk aversion turn out to be the basis of a desire to insure.This calls into question the standard approach that bases insurance demand on risk aversion with important implications for policy and research.
Subjects: 
Risk Preferences
Indivisible Consumption
Insurance, Gambling
JEL: 
D01
D81
Document Type: 
Conference Paper

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