Consumer Inertia and Firm Pricing in the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Insurance Exchange
利用美国联邦医疗保险D部分处方药保险市场数据，研究发现消费者存在转换摩擦导致惯性，企业通过提高老计划保费（约10%）并推出更便宜的新计划来应对。
I use the Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance market to examine the dynamics of firm interaction with consumers on an insurance exchange. Enrollment data show that consumers face switching frictions leading to inertia in plan choice, and a regression discontinuity design indicates initial defaults have persistent effects. In the absence of commitment to future prices, theory predicts firms respond to inertia by raising prices on existing enrollees, while introducing cheaper alternative plans. The complete set of enrollment and price data from 2006 through 2010 confirms this prediction: older plans have approximately 10 percent higher premiums than comparable new plans.