The Insurance Is the Lemon: Failing to Index Contracts

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Finance
Year: 2020
Volume: 75
Issue: 1
Pages: 463-506

Authors (2)

BARNEY HARTMAN‐GLASER (not in RePEc) BENJAMIN HÉBERT (Stanford University)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We model the widespread failure of contracts to share risk using available indices. A borrower and lender can share risk by conditioning repayments on an index. The lender has private information about the ability of this index to measure the true state that the borrower would like to hedge. The lender is risk‐averse and thus requires a premium to insure the borrower. The borrower, however, might be paying something for nothing if the index is a poor measure of the true state. We provide sufficient conditions for this effect to cause the borrower to choose a nonindexed contract instead.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:jfinan:v:75:y:2020:i:1:p:463-506
Journal Field
Finance
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-02-02