| This thesis combines three essays on consumer behavior in the health insurance and retirement markets. The first two chapters study the Chilean health insurance system. Here, I estimate price elasticity across health care services and demographic groups using unique data from the Chilean health care market. The results show that consumer response to price variation depends on the type of care required and the demographic background of individuals. These findings provide new evidence on the responsiveness of consumer expenditures to co-payments for different types of health care expenditures. Further, the results allow us to better interpret discrepancies in previous literature.;Second, I study the determinants of switching between health insurance plans when a public option is present. Using administrative records and panel data from a national survey. I find that switching depends on labor shocks, health shocks, renewal dates and regulations.;Finally, in the third chapter, Justine Hastings and I analyze the Mexican privatized social security market. We examine how people manage (or fail to manage) their accounts and the role of mandated information on both investment decisions and strategic firm responses. We find that workers do not pay attention to management fees when selecting accounts. Also, mandated information changes the worker response to fees, but results in their choosing higher cost funds. |
