Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/76181 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 1002
Publisher: 
University of Zurich, Socioeconomic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
This contribution contains an international comparison of preferences. Using two Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE), it measures willingness to pay for health insurance attributes in Germany and the Netherlands. Since the Dutch DCE was carried out right after the 2006 health reform, which made citizens explicitly choose a health insurance contract, two research questions naturally arise. First, are the preferences with regard to contract attributes (such as Managed-Care-type restrictions of physician choice) similar between the two countries? Second, was the information campaign launched by the Dutch government in the context of the reform effective in the sense of reducing status quo bias? Based on random-effects Probit estimates, these two questions can be answered as follows. First, while much the same attributes have positive and negative willingness to pay values in the two countries, their magnitudes differ, pointing to differences in preference structure. Second, status quo bias in the Netherlands is one-half of the German value, suggesting that Dutch consumers were indeed made to bear the cost of decision making associated with choice of a health insurance contract.
Subjects: 
Preference measurement
Willingness to pay
Health insurance
Discrete Choice Experiments
Health reform
Germany
Netherlands
JEL: 
C25
D12
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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