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    Active Screening in Insurance Markets

    Shinichi Kamiya

    Nanyang Business SchoolNanyang Technological University

    Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798

    Mark J. Browne

    Wisconsin School of Business

    University of Wisconsin-Madison975 University Avenue

    Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1323

    Submitted to Journal of Public EconomicsMarch 21, 2011

    Corresponding author, Email: [email protected], Tel.: +65 6790 5718, Fax: +65 6791 3697

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    Active Screening in Insurance Markets

    Abstract

    In a market characterized by asymmetric information, a party with private informa-

    tion may reveal the information through its self-selection, the mechanism of which has

    received considerable attention in the academic literature. The party might also reveal

    the private information through a revelation test offered by an uninformed party. We

    consider competitive insurance markets in which insurers induce information revelation

    with self-selection mechanisms and risk classification tests. We demonstrate that con-

    ditional and unconditional contracts may coexist in equilibrium when the conditional

    contract offered by an insurer has an accuracy level that is superior to that of other

    insurers. We also show that when multiple firms use tests that are similar in terms of

    their accuracy, conditional contracts do not hold in a Nash equilibrium.

    Keywords: test, screening, adverse selection, insurance

    JEL Codes: D81, D82, G22

    1 Introduction

    Self-selection models in markets characterized by asymmetric information have received con-

    siderable attention in the literature. Sorting of informed parties in these models occurs with

    different types choosing different contract from menus offered by competing uninformed par-

    ties. In the context of insurance markets, uninformed insurance companies compete against

    each other in terms of the premium and coverage that they offer to informed individuals who

    then self-select. Self-selection results in a decrease in information asymmetry. In contrast

    to the attention paid to self-selecting models, the literature has paid little attention to an-

    other widely observed market response to information asymmetry, risk classification through

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    testing, with which uninformed parties actively screen informed parties. Underwriting in

    financial markets, interviewing in job markets, and dating in the marriage market are all

    examples. In the current study, we analyze equilibrium in a market in which asymmetric

    information is reduced through self-selection and through testing. In practice, testing tends

    to be imperfect, and noisy tests may entail pooling contracts. We consider when contracts

    conditional on a test result are offered in insurance transactions and whether such conditional

    contracts hold in equilibrium.

    In our construct, insurers have a choice to offer either a single unconditional contract that

    allows individuals to self-select or a single conditional contract that requires individuals to

    take a test first that reveals whether they are high risks or low risks. Individuals have a choice

    between self-selecting the unconditional contract and taking a test to purchase a conditional

    contract. In the absence of the risk classification associated with a conditional contract, the

    market is characterized by a Rothschild-Stiglitz (RS, hereafter) Nash equilibrium (Rothschild

    and Stiglitz, 1976).

    We demonstrate that individuals are willing to deviate from a self-selection contract to a

    conditional contract if the test used for the conditional contract is relatively accurate. Equi-

    librium conditions are investigated under several different market assumptions, and we show

    that both conditional and unconditional contracts can coexist in several circumstances. In

    contrast, it is also shown that conditional contracts are not sustainable as a Nash equilibrium

    if multiple insurance companies employ a similar test in the market.1

    The remainder of this article is organized as follows. In Section 2, a brief overview of

    the literature on screening is presented. Competitive insurance markets and active-screening

    are characterized in Section 3. In Section 4, we investigate equilibrium in several marketsettings where insurance companies use symmetric tests which reveal both high-risk and

    low-risk individuals risk type with the same probability. To establish robustness and to

    provide explicit conditions, the case of asymmetric tests which perfectly identify low-risks

    1Our observation is that while insurers employ similar tests, for instance most use gender in personal

    lines of coverages, the classification schemes are unique across insurers.

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    is discussed in Section 5. A summary of our findings and a discussion of limitations in our

    work are contained in Section 6.

    2 Existing studies

    Screening models in a competitive environment have been considered by many others since

    the seminal work of Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976). A rich literature of competitive screening

    models explores possible equilibria under various assumptions (see, for instance, Miyazaki,

    1977; Riley, 1979; Spence, 1978; Wilson, 1977). Recent literature has considered refinement

    of the RS model and resulting equilibria (e.g., Dubey and Geanakoplos, 2002; Martin, 2007;

    Netzer and Scheuer, 2010). For instance, Netzer and Scheuer (2010) consider a model where

    individuals are heterogeneous in their wealth and argue that equilibria in their model are

    more consistent with empirical findings. Most studies extending the RS model have relied on

    the self-selection mechanism for risk sorting. Typically efforts made by uninformed parties

    to acquire knowledge regarding unobserved information are not considered.

    Prior studies on information acquisition have primarily dealt with constructs where con-

    sumers are unaware of their risk type ex ante and invest in learning their risk type (see,

    for instance, Crocker and Snow, 1992; Doherty and Thistle, 1996; Hoy and Polborn, 2000;

    Polborn, Hoy, and Sadanand, 2006). In contrast, consistent with the RS model, our analysis

    assumes that individuals know their risk type, but insurance companies do not.

    The assumption that test results are public information also sets this study apart from

    earlier work on information acquisition by Doherty and Thistle (1996) and Hoy and Pol-

    born (2000). Their work assumes that tests such as genetic tests are independent from the

    purchase of an insurance contract and that insurers do not have access to the test results.

    This article follows research by Browne and Kamiya (2010) which investigates the market

    outcome when a noisy underwriting test is offered by the insurer. Their study focuses on

    identifying equilibrium conditions when insurance companies are non-myopic and all insurers

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    have access to an identical underwriting test. This study differs from theirs by focusing on

    Nash competition and examining the case where each insurers test is unique.

    3 Competitive Insurance Market

    Homogeneous risk-neutral insurers offer one type of contract defined by coverage quantity,

    q, and premium, p. Individuals live in one period with initial endowment W > 0. Terminal

    wealth is uncertain with two states: W1 with a fixed loss D > 0 and W2 with no loss.

    Individuals differ in their likelihood of loss, which is private information known only to the

    individual. The probability that loss state W1 occurs for a high risk (H-type) is H and

    that for a low risk (L-type) is L, where 0 < L < H < 1. Individuals also differ in their

    observable attributes, which can be used by insurance companies to predict their risk-type.

    The risk-averse individual, who has a standard risk-averse utility function (i.e., U > 0,

    U < 0), applies for one contract. The L-type individuals expected utility with insurance

    contract C = (p, q) is VL(C) = LU(Wp + qD)+(1L)U(Wp). The proportion of

    H-type individuals and that of L-type individuals in the market are public information and

    are denoted by and 1 , respectively.

    The classic screening models well describe the market outcomes where there is no public

    information expected to be associated with private information. However, in market trans-

    actions an uninformed party tends to observe informed parties characteristics. In insurance

    transactions, individual characteristics such as age, gender, and marital status may be rel-

    atively easily obtained by uninformed insurance companies. It is natural in such a market

    that competing insurance companies immediately attempt to process a set of observed in-

    formation to predict individual risk type. If one firm successfully develops an algorithm to

    predict risk type more accurately than other firms, the firm will gain a market advantage.

    Consider such an algorithm as a function f : X {H-type, L-type} where X represents

    a set of observable attributes. The output correctly predicts the individuals risk type with

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    probability y (0, 1) but fails with probability 1 y. If a firm invents a test, it has

    a choice to offer either an unconditional contract or a conditional contract that may be

    purchased by individuals depending on their test outcome. Thus, a conditional contract

    requires individuals to take a test first and the test result determines if they can purchase

    the contract.

    Consider a sequential game in which a new firm decides to enter the existing insurance

    market by offering contracts. When individuals maximize their expected utility, Cournot-

    Nash equilibrium identified in this game can be characterized by no contract in the equilib-

    rium making a loss and no contract outside the equilibrium making a non-negative profit if

    offered.

    In the absence of any test, the well-known RS separating equilibrium identified as a set

    of contracts (H, L) holds (see Figure 1) if and only if the population of H-type individuals

    is sufficiently large relative to that of L-type individuals as pointed out by Rothschild and

    Stiglitz (1976). We follow Crocker and Snow (1985) and denote the RS critical value of the

    proportion of H-type individuals by RS, with which the RS equilibrium holds if and only

    if the actual proportion of H-type individuals is greater than or equal to the critical value

    (i.e., RS). In other words, the critical value is defined where L-type individuals are

    indifferent between a pooling contract with RS and the RS separating contract L. Let M be

    the pooling contract which satisfies the equality, VL(M) = VL(L), where the fair premium

    rate for the pooling contract is:

    M = L + RS(H L) (1)

    [Insert Figure 1 Here]

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    4 Insurance Market with Active Screening

    To investigate the possibility that individuals demand a conditional contract which upsets

    the RS separating equilibrium in the case of RS, we first consider H-type individuals

    demand for a conditional contract followed by L-type individuals demand. H-type individu-

    als are willing to deviate from their unconditional contract H to a conditional contract, A, if

    and only if EVH(A, H) VH(H), assuming that individuals choose a conditional contract

    when they are indifferent between these two contracts. The left hand side of the inequality

    represents the H-type individuals expected utility attained by taking the test. If the test

    misclassifies one into a L-type, contract A, defined by the L-type individuals optimal pool-

    ing contract at its actuarially fair premium pA, can be purchased. Otherwise, one takes the

    unconditional contract H. The light hand side of the condition is the utility corresponding

    to the RS separating contract H. This condition is explicitly expressed as:

    yU(W HD) + (1 y)[HU(WpA + qA D) + (1 H)U(WpA)]

    U(W HD)(2)

    which can be reduced to VH

    (A) VH

    (H). This inequality holds when L-type individuals

    prefer the conditional contract A to their separating contract L given the conditional contract

    is offered. That is, whenever L-type individuals deviate from the unconditional contract L to

    the conditional contract A, H-type individuals also deviate from the unconditional contract

    H to conditional contract A. This result confines our attention to the L-types demand.

    Lemma 4.1. L-type individuals prefer the conditional contract A to their unconditional

    contract L in the case of

    RS

    if and only if the accuracy of a test employed for theconditional contract satisfies:

    (1 y)

    (1 y) + y(1 ) RS (3)

    Proof. The conditional contract A requires a subsidy s defined by the firms resource con-

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    straint where its income is equal to the expected claim payment:

    y(1 )AqA + (1 y)AqA = y(1 )LqA + (1 y)HqA (4)

    where A = L+ s. The subsidy rate is proportional to coverage because the subsidy paid by

    L-type individuals to misclassified individuals depends on the optimal coverage determined

    by maximizing the L-types utility for contract A. Then the subsidy rate can be rewritten

    as:

    s =H L

    1 + y(1)(1y)

    . (5)

    Note that the RS critical value RS

    is determined where L-type individuals are indifferentbetween a pooling contract with RS and its separating contract L (i.e. VL(M) = VL(L)).

    Hence the L-types demand condition, VL(A) VL(L), can be restated as VL(A) VL(M).

    Since the subsidy rate ofA and that ofM are s and RS(HL), respectively, the condition

    is equivalent to:

    H L

    1 + y(1)(1y)

    RS(H L). (6)

    which is rearranged, in (3), by the relationship between the fraction of H-type individuals in

    the pooling contract A and the RS critical value. The minimum required accuracy of a test

    decreases to 0.5 as RS.

    Thus both L-type and H-type individuals no longer choose their separating contracts that

    fully rely on their self-selection when a test can reduce the fraction of H-type individuals in a

    pooling contract to at least the RS critical value. They instead prefer a conditional contract

    that utilizes a test.

    When < RS, the underlying market fully relying on self-selection is characterized by

    non-existence of Nash equilibrium. Individuals prefer a pooling contract W (a Wilson pooling

    contract) at the average fair premium pW, to their separating contracts. It is straightforward

    to show that individuals are better off with the conditional contract, A, than the uncondi-

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    tional pooling contract, W, if the test accuracy is greater than 0.5. However, this accuracy

    does not necessarily guarantee that insurance companies cannot offer non-equilibrium un-

    conditional contracts that attract only L-type individuals given the conditional contract A

    is offered. In the next section, we identify a robust condition as a part of our equilibrium

    argument in the case of < RS.

    4.1 Monopoly on Conditional Contracts

    We start with the case where a test f is invented by one of the competing insurance compa-

    nies and only the insurance company can offer a conditional contract based on that test. In

    contrast to the market discussed by Stiglitz (1977), the market analyzed here is still com-petitive in that other insurance companies can offer an unconditional contract. Therefore,

    in the market where RS, H-type and L-type individuals can at least attain the RS

    separating contracts, H and L, respectively.

    4.1.1 Equilibrium

    When individuals choose a monopolists conditional contract A, L-type individuals who are

    misclassified by the test and H-type individuals who are correctly identified by the test take

    unconditional contracts. Therefore, a set of contracts consisting of a conditional contract

    and two unconditional RS separating contracts, (A,L,H), may hold in equilibrium when

    RS. In contrast, when < RS, unconditional contract W never holds in equilibrium,

    while the conditional contract A may not be upset even in that case. Equilibrium holds if

    no new unconditional contract can earn a non-negative profit given the conditional contract

    is offered.

    Although the conditional contract A is also a pooling contract, the contract can be

    sustained in equilibrium. To understand this possibility, it is important to note that an

    individuals decision whether to take a conditional contract is based on its ex-ante utility

    for the conditional contract A, which could result in either of two contracts: A and L for

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    L-type individuals and A and H for H-type individuals when RS. This is because

    L-type individuals take their unconditional separating contract L if they are misclassified

    as H-types by a noisy test and H-type individuals demand their unconditional separating

    contract H if a noisy test correctly identifies H-type individuals as H-types. The H-types

    expected utility is strictly less than the level of utility gained solely by the contract A,

    EVH(A, H) < VH(A). Analogously, L-type individuals expected utility is strictly less than

    the level of utility gained solely by the contract A, EVL(A, L) < VL(A).

    Thus, the individuals ex-ante utility is strictly lower than its utility gained solely from

    the conditional contract A. It can be shown that the deviation of the H-type individuals

    expected utility from VH(A) is positively associated with the accuracy of a test and makes it

    possible that no unconditional contract that attracts only L-type individuals can be offered.

    It is clear that EVH(A, H) VH(H) while EVL(A, L) VL(A) as y 1 (see Figure 1).

    Lemma 4.2. A set of contracts (A,L,H) holds in equilibrium when RS if there exists

    an unconditional contract L defined by VH(L) = EVH(A, H) which satisfies:

    EVL(A, L) VL(L) (7)

    where the contract L is offered at L-types fair premium pL. In equilibrium, a conditional

    contract and unconditional contracts coexist when the test employed by the conditional

    contract is relatively accurate.

    Lemma 4.3. Conditional contract A holds in equilibrium when < RS if there exists an

    unconditional contract L defined by VH(L) = EVH(A, W) which satisfies

    EVL(A, W) VL(L) (8)

    These incentive conditions may be thought problematic because unconditional pooling

    contract W does not hold in equilibrium. However, the Wilson pooling contract W can be

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    used to define the constraint. This is because the contract W yields lower utility for L-type

    and greater utility for H-type individuals than any new potential unconditional contract

    offer that attracts only L-type individuals (see contract B in Figure 2). Thus, the incentive

    constraints are robust against the concern of non-existence of equilibrium for the pooling

    contract W, though it is still true that the unconditional pooling contract itself does not

    hold in equilibrium.

    [Insert Figure 2 Here]

    Proposition 4.1 (Active Screening Equilibrium). A conditional pooling contract may

    exist in equilibrium regardless of the proportion of H-type individuals, if an insurer with a

    unique underwriting test that is sufficiently accurate offers a conditional contract.

    This argument can be established by the lemmas discussed above.

    4.1.2 Optimal Contract

    Given that an equilibrium exists, we next consider the rent earned by a monopolist, the

    single best underwriter in the market, in the case where RS. We denote the profit-

    maximizing contract as . Clearly, the optimal contract is obtained where the L-types

    incentive constraint holds with the equality, EVL(, L) = VL(L). Otherwise, there exists a

    contract (p, q

    ) such that

    p

    + (1 )(p

    q

    ) > p + (1 )(p q) (9)

    The optimal contract may be seen diagrammatically in Figure 3. Due to the test, the

    monopolists breakeven point is at A = L + s as discussed above. The contract that

    maximizes profits must lie on the indifference curve VL() and on the line parallel to the

    line pA. The reason is that the vertical distance between the indifference curve VL() and

    the line pA represents the profit which is maximized where a line shifted upward from pA

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    is tangent to the indifference curve. Let p = (L + s)q + be the tangent line where

    represents a profit per insured. Thus, the profit-maximizing contract is identified as

    the tangent point of the line p to the indifference curve VL(). Note that p implies

    that q = qA. Therefore, the conditional contract offered to those classified as a L-type is

    = (p, qA) where p = (L + s)qA + .

    [Insert Figure 3 Here]

    The profit also represents the value of a noisy test, which may be sold to other firms.

    A conditional contract, however, can hold in equilibrium only when the monopolist alone

    offers the conditional contract. We show later that there is no equilibrium for conditional

    contracts if the same test is used by other competing insurance companies.

    4.2 Competitive Market with Multiple Tests

    4.2.1 Heterogeneous Tests

    We investigate the impact of firm competition in developing a better test to gain a com-

    petitive advantage. Our particular interest here is whether a conditional contract at the

    actuarially fair premium still holds in equilibrium. Consider a simple case where firm i in-

    vents a test fi : X {H-type, L-type} with probability yi where i = 1, 2. Assume that

    y1 > y2 > 0. Thus, one firm has a more accurate test than the other. Firm i can offer

    a conditional contract Ai for those identified as a L-type by its test at the fair premium.

    Hence, firm 1 offers a conditional contract A1 = (pA1, qA1) where:

    pA1 = qA1

    L + H L

    1 + y1(1)(1y1)

    (10)

    A question is whether the conditional contract A1 can be sustained when both another

    conditional contract and unconditional contracts are offered. Our primary concern here is

    another conditional contract, A2, potentially offered by firm 2 (see Figure 4).

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    [Insert Figure 4 Here]

    For the conditional contract A1 to be sustained against any new conditional contract A2, the

    new contract must result in an immediate loss if it is offered. This condition is rephrased as:

    if a conditional contract A2 attracts L-type individuals, it must attract H-type individuals

    as well. That is, the following two inequalities must be satisfied simultaneously.

    EVL(A2, L) EVL(A1, L) (11)

    EVH(A2, H) EVH(A1, H) (12)

    To analyze these conditions, it should be noted that by definition the test for contract A2

    is less accurate than the test for existing contract A1. Therefore, if firm 2 offers a conditional

    contract A1 with test accuracy y2, only H-type individuals deviate from A1 to A2. Thus, in

    order to avoid attracting H-type individuals, firm 2 may offer a combination of coverage and

    premium which at least offsets the H-types benefit gained by the less accurate test, but still

    attract L-type individuals.

    Proposition 4.2. A set of contracts (A1, L , H ) holds in equilibrium in a market where firms

    offer conditional pooling contracts if there is no new contract A2 that satisfies both:

    EVL(A2, L) EVL(A1, L) (13)

    EVH(A2, H) < EVH(A1, H) (14)

    As long as the accuracy of the second best test satisfies (13) and (14), a conditional contract

    A1 cannot be upset. The accuracy of a test required for a conditional contract to survive in

    equilibrium cannot be explicitly derived in this case. The explicit form under the assumption

    of an asymmetric test is derived in the next section. This argument can be extended to the

    case where more than two insurance companies offer tests with different degrees of accuracy.

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    4.2.2 Homogeneous Tests

    In contrast to the previous case, we now consider the case in which multiple firms employ

    the same test. Each firm offers a conditional contract A to those who are identified as a

    L-type. We find that the conditional contract does not hold as a part of equilibrium.

    It can be shown that there exist possible profitable deviations against a new conditional

    pooling contract A. Given that contract A is offered, insurance companies may offer a

    conditional contract that attracts only L-type individuals but not misclassified H-type in-

    dividuals (a contract such as A2 in Figure 4). Such a conditional contract always exists

    as long as L-types individuals subsidize misclassified H-type individuals. The non-existence

    of equilibrium for a conditional contract can be explained just as a pooling contract can-

    not be sustained in the absence of any tests. Browne and Kamiya (2010) show that the

    conditional contract holds in a Wilson equilibrium where insurance companies are assumed

    to be non-myopic. Thus, equilibrium in a market where firms use the same test reverts to

    the RS equilibrium argument. A set of unconditional separating contracts (H, L) holds in

    equilibrium if RS. Otherwise, there is no equilibrium in the presence of conditional

    contracts.

    Efficiency of equilibrium is another major issue when contracts fully rely on individuals

    self-selection. Since we discuss conditional contracts that could be introduced to the market

    where self-selection contracts are offered, by definition both H-type and L-type individuals

    are better off ex ante when conditional contracts exist in equilibrium. The allocation of

    the utility gain between risk types is determined by the accuracy of a test in equilibrium.

    The utility gain of H-types is maximized at the minimum required accuracy of the test that

    sustains equilibrium and decreases as the accuracy increases. In contrast, L-types expected

    utility monotonically increases with test accuracy.

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    5 Asymmetric Test

    The analysis in Section 4 leads to several conclusions: first, active-screening may be utilized

    in a market where private information prevails; second, a pooling contract may hold in

    equilibrium; third, a conditional contract cannot be a part of an equilibrium, if the most

    accurate test can be used by more than one insurance company.

    We next consider an asymmetric test, which imperfectly identifies H-types but can per-

    fectly identify L-types. We show that our conclusion does not depend on the assumption

    that both risk-types are correctly classified with the same accuracy. We also show that some

    equilibrium conditions are explicitly provided in terms of the accuracy of a test. Specifically,

    we consider a test that always correctly identifies L-type individuals as L-types while H-type

    individuals are misclassified with the probability 1 y. It is clear that L-type individuals

    will purchase a contract A if they take the test.

    With the asymmetric test, the subsidy implicit in a conditional contract A is:

    s = (H L)1 y

    1 y, (15)

    and the required accuracy of the test for the case when RS is defined as:

    y 1 (RS/)

    1 RS. (16)

    As RS, the right hand side of (16) decreases to zero. When the market is characterized

    by < RS, it is straightforward to show that L-type individuals always prefer a condi-

    tional contract, regardless of its accuracy. Thus, the accuracy condition above is a sufficient

    condition such that L-type individuals prefer a conditional contract A to any unconditional

    contract offer regardless of the underlying market.

    Market equilibrium when the conditional contract offered by the monopolist of a con-

    ditional contract employs an asymmetric noisy test can be identified analogously to the

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    symmetric test case. The argument is omitted here because any further simplification can-

    not be made.

    The insurers profit in this case can be expressed in terms of the L-types risk premium

    for contract and L

    , denoted as and L, respectively. With these risk premiums, the

    profit-maximizing condition, VL() = VL(L), can be expressed as:

    U(Wp A A(D qA) ) = U(W LD L). (17)

    This implies that the profit per insured is

    = (L ) sqA. (18)

    Next, we investigate a market discussed in Section 4.2.1, in which two conditional con-

    tracts are offered. A conditional contract A1 holds in equilibrium if a new conditional contract

    A2 that attracts L-type individuals also attracts H-type individuals (see Figure 5). That is,

    a contract A2 that satisfies VL(A2) VL(A1) must also hold EVH(A2, H) EVH(A1, H).

    [Insert Figure 5 Here]

    Consider a new contract offer such that H-types expected utility from a new conditional

    contract A2, with which only L-type individuals are worse off, makes H-types better off by

    the less accurate test y2 as before. It is straightforward to show that contract L, defined by

    VL(A1) = VL(L) at L-types fair premium, maximizes L-types utility loss but still attracts

    L-type individuals. Therefore, if the test employed by firm 2 is inaccurate enough to increase

    H-types expected utility even for contract L

    , the equilibrium condition is satisfied. Thus,

    we can restate the condition as EVH(L, H) EVH(A1, H), which can also be rewritten

    as:

    y2 VH(L) EVH(A1, H)

    VH(L) VH(H). (19)

    The equilibrium condition is identified in terms of the accuracy of the second best test.

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    A principle difference from the symmetric test case is observed in regards to an uncon-

    ditional contract offer. When L-types are perfectly classified, no unconditional contract for

    L-type individuals is offered. This also implies that, regardless of the fraction of H-type

    individuals, no unconditional pooling contract is offered. Therefore, equilibrium, if it exists,

    is always characterized by a set of contracts (A, H).

    6 Conclusion

    Competitive screening has been discussed in the absence of uninformed parties efforts to

    classify informed parties. Many different forms of screening are, however, employed when

    private information prevails. It is reasonable for uninformed parties to attempt to predict

    informed partys private information to obtain a competitive advantage in a market. We

    investigate the impact of testing on the existence of equilibrium.

    This paper identifies the demand for a conditional contract and we show that individuals

    deviate from their self-selection contracts to a conditional contract, which requires them to

    take a test, if the test reduces the fraction of H-type individuals in a pooling contract to

    lower than the RS critical value of the underlying population.

    Perhaps most importantly, it is shown that a pooling conditional contract holds in equi-

    librium when the most accurate test has significant competitive advantage and can attract

    all individuals. In contrast, we also find that conditional contracts do not hold in equilibrium

    when multiple firms utilize tests similar in terms of their accuracy.

    Acknowledgements

    We thank Michael Hoy and seminar participants at the 2010 Risk Theory Seminar for helpful

    comments. All errors are our own.

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    W2

    pLEVL(A,L)

    EVH(A,H)

    pA

    A

    H L

    VH(H)

    045 degree

    pH L

    E

    W1

    Figure 1: Demand of Conditional Contract A

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    W2

    pLEVL(A,W)

    EVH(A,W) A

    A

    H

    WLB

    0 45 degree

    pH L

    E

    W1

    Figure 2: Conditional Contract A in Equilibrium

    pH

    H

    p

    pA

    EV (,H)

    VL()

    pL

    A

    q

    D

    EVL(,L)

    Figure 3: Profit-maximizing Contract

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    W2

    pL

    EVL(A1,L)

    EVH(A1,H)

    pA

    A1A2

    VH(A1)

    H L

    0 45 degree

    E

    W1

    Figure 4: Multiple Conditional Contracts

    W2

    pLVL(A1)

    EVH(A1,H)

    pA

    A1A2

    VH(A1)

    H L

    L

    0 45 degree

    E

    W1

    Figure 5: Conditional Contract A with Asymmetric Tests