In this paper, we present an analytical framework for modeling the performance of a single TCP session in the presence of random packet loss. This framework may be applicable to communications channels that cause random packet loss modelled by appropriate statistics of the inter-loss duration. It is shown that the analytical model predicts the throughput for LANs/WANs (low and high bandwidth-de...

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the world insurance market grew substantially. World insurance premiums in 1993 accounted for about 8 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP), compared to 4 percent in 1984. This article explains a substantial proportion of the variation in propertyliability insurance consumption across countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and ...

We analyze the impact of factors related to corporate governance (i.e., compensation, monitoring, and ownership structure) on risk taking in the insurance industry. We measure asset, product, and financial risk in insurance companies and employ a structural equation model in which corporate governance is modeled as latent factor. Based on this model, we present empirical evidence on the link be...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

This paper describes the contract design and institutional features of an innovative rainfall insurance policy offered to smallholder farmers in rural India and presents preliminary evidence on the determinants of insurance participation. Insurance take-up is found to be decreasing in basis risk between insurance payouts and income fluctuations, higher among wealthy households, and lower among ...

The Provision of Wage Insurance by the Firm: Evidence from a Longitudinal Matched Employer-Employee Dataset We evaluate the impact of product market uncertainty on workers wages, addressing the questions: To what extent do firms provide insurance to their workforce, insulating their wages from shocks in product markets? How does the amount of insurance provided vary with firm and worker attribu...

Weather is a key source of income risk, particularly in emerging market economies. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial involving a sample of Indian farmers to study how an innovative rainfall insurance product affects production decisions. We find that insurance provision induces farmers—particularly educated farmers—to shift production toward higherreturn but higher-risk cash crops. ...

Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? We use a series of randomized field experiments in rural India to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an innovative rainfall insurance product. Demand is significantly price sensitive, but widespread take-up would not be achieved even if the product offered a payout ...

1180 The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, better known as the legislation that added the Part D prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program, represents the single most significant expansion of public insurance programs in the US in the past 40 years. The most novel, and controversial, feature of this legislation was the use of multiple private insurance providers to deliver this new pu...