„Kinked Utility and the Demand for Human Wealth and Liability Insurance“

Hans-Werner Sinn

European Economic Review 17, 1982, S. 149-162.

The paper advances the hypothesis that the 'gross wealth' von Neumann/Morgenstern utility function is characterized by a horizontal branch for wealth levels below the socially guaranteed minimum wealth and analyses the implications or this property for human wealth and liability insurance. lt turns out that the attractiveness of these kinds of insurance might,even for risk-averse people, be too low to satisry the premium requirements of private insurance companies.