Pooling risk among countries

Pooling Risk Among Countries∗

We present a model where the enforcement of international risk sharing contracts is costly. With non diversifiable enforcement costs, welfare is not necessarily maximized for perfect worldwide risk sharing. Some groupings, or “pools” of countries can deliver higher welfare, with higher diversification gains net of enforcement costs. We construct an exhaustive list of such pools of countries. Fo...

Pooling Risk Among Countries; Jean Imbs and Paolo Mauro; IMF Working Paper 07/132; June 1, 2007

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. In this paper, we identify the groups of countries where inte...

Risk Pooling, Risk Preferences, and Social Networks

Using data from a field experiment conducted in seventy Colombian municipalities, we investigate who pools risk with whom when risk pooling arrangements are not formally enforced. We explore the roles played by risk attitudes and network connections both theoretically and empirically. We find that pairs of participants who share a bond of friendship or kinship are more likely to (1) join the sa...

Enterprise liability, risk pooling and diagnostic care

Risk-pooling--necessary but not sufficient?

The search for a ‘‘good’’ health system is constant. Even in countries where comprehensively organized national health systems have existed for over a century, the debate on how best to design them to ensure the effective financing, organization and provision of care is as lively and controversial as ever. During the last quarter of the 20th century many countries proposed a wide variety of swe...