Without needing to know anything more about Juneísattitude toward risk (except that she is strictly risk averse), explainwhy if June views the insurance is actuarially fair, that is q equals hersubjective probability that the truck will crash, then June will fullyinsure, that is, she will choose C = L. Illustrate your your answerby drawing appropriate indi§erence curves for June on your diagramfrom part (d)
Question
Without needing to know anything more about Juneísattitude toward risk (except that she is strictly risk averse), explainwhy if June views the insurance is actuarially fair, that is q equals hersubjective probability that the truck will crash, then June will fullyinsure, that is, she will choose C = L. Illustrate your your answerby drawing appropriate indi§erence curves for June on your diagramfrom part (d)
Solution
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If June views the insurance as actuarially fair, this means that the premium she pays for the insurance (q) equals her subjective probability that the truck will crash. In other words, the expected cost of the insurance equals the expected benefit.
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Given that June is strictly risk averse, she dislikes uncertainty and prefers to have a guaranteed level of wealth rather than face a gamble with the same expected value but some risk of getting less. Therefore, if the insurance is actuarially fair, she will choose to fully insure (C = L) to eliminate the risk of the truck crashing.
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This is because with full insurance, her wealth will be the same in both states (W - qL), regardless of whether the truck crashes or not. This certainty is more valuable to her than the possibility of having more wealth in one state but less in the other.
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On the diagram from part (d), this would be represented by a point on the 45-degree line, which represents equal wealth in both states. The line representing the insurance policies would intersect the 45-degree line at this point.
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June's indifference curves would be strictly convex to the origin, reflecting her risk aversion. The indifference curve that passes through the point of full insurance would be tangent to the 45-degree line at that point, indicating that this is the highest level of utility she can achieve given the cost of the insurance.
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Any other point on the line representing the insurance policies would be on a lower indifference curve, indicating a lower level of utility. This is because these points involve some risk of the truck crashing without full insurance coverage, which June dislikes due to her risk aversion.
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Therefore, if the insurance is actuarially fair, June will fully insure to maximize her utility, given her strict risk aversion.
Similar Questions
Explain what it means for June to be deemed strictly riskaverse and what this implies for the utility function from your answerto part (b). Illustrate in your diagram from part (a) what this meansfor her indi§erence curves.Suppose now June can purchase insurance for the transport of her householde§ects at a price of q 2 (0; 1) per dollar of coverage. That is, if she chooses apolicy that covers a maximum of C in the event of a loss, she pays qC to theinsurance company and they agree to pay her in the event of a loss, the valueof her loss up to the agreed maximum cover of C. So, in particular, if she3takes out a policy with the maximum coverage of L, then she will be fullyinsured in the event of the truck crashing since her state-contingent wealthwill be M qL in the event the truck does not crash and M qL L + L =M qL in the event the truck crashes.
Suppose now June can purchase insurance for the transport of her householde§ects at a price of q 2 (0; 1) per dollar of coverage. That is, if she chooses apolicy that covers a maximum of C in the event of a loss, she pays qC to theinsurance company and they agree to pay her in the event of a loss, the valueof her loss up to the agreed maximum cover of C. So, in particular, if she3takes out a policy with the maximum coverage of L, then she will be fullyinsured in the event of the truck crashing since her state-contingent wealthwill be M qL in the event the truck does not crash and M qL L + L =M qL in the event the truck crashes.(d) (5 points) Illustrate on your diagram from part (a) her state-contingentwealth bundles corresponding to the set of choices going from zero cov-erage (that is, C = 0) to full coverage (that is, C = L). [Hint: eachadditional dollar of coverage reduces Juneís wealth by q dollars in theevent the truck does not crash and increases it by q + 1 in the eventthe truck crashes.]
Let (x1; x2) (0; 0) denote Juneís state-contingent wealth,where x1 0 is her wealth in the state in which the truck does notcrash and x2 0 is her wealth in the state in which the truck doescrash. Draw a graph with the horizontal axis measuring the quantityx1 and the vertical axis measuring the quantity x2 and plot Juneísstate-contingent wealth if she does not take out any insurance.Suppose Juneís preferences over state-contingent wealth bundles (x1; x2)conform to the theory of Subjective Expected Utility
Illustrate on your diagram from part (a) her state-contingentwealth bundles corresponding to the set of choices going from zero cov-erage (that is, C = 0) to full coverage (that is, C = L). [Hint: eachadditional dollar of coverage reduces Juneís wealth by q dollars in theevent the truck does not crash and increases it by q + 1 in the eventthe truck crashes.
) Construct an E-R diagram for a car-insurance company whose customers ownone or more cars each. Each car has associated with it zero to any number of recorded accidents.
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