Why Is Insurance So Funky? with Amy Finkelstein #691

Purchasing an insurance policy is one of those seemingly boring tasks that accompanies entering adulthood. Whether it was your parents making you chip in on the higher costs of car insurance because they were now insuring a teenage driver, or seeing the health insurance deduction come out of your paycheck every two weeks. Or maybe it’s realizing that you now have folks who are dependent on your income so it’s finally time to purchase a life insurance policy. Regardless, it’s often thought of as a dull task but our guest, Amy Finkelstein, is here today to explain why insurance is more fascinating than we realize! Amy is a distinguished professor of economics at MIT, she’s a co-director at the National Bureau of Economic Research, she’s won the MacArthur Genius Grant, and now she’s written a book, “Risky Business: Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It.” In our conversation today we talk about the imperfect insurance market, the purpose of waiting periods, the types of insurance policies we should think long and hard about, and much more!

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