Heterogeneity in Choice Inconsistencies among the Elderly: Evidence from Prescription Drug Plan Choice
研究了老年人在Medicare D部分处方药计划选择中表现出的选择不一致性，发现这种不一致性在不同消费者和地区间差异很小，消费者普遍低估自付费用、忽视计划个性化后果，导致常选劣等计划。
This paper investigates the degree to which choice inconsistencies documented in the context of Medicare Part D plan choice vary across consumers and geographic regions. Our main finding is that there is surprisingly little variation: regardless of age, gender, predicted drug expenditures or the predictability of drug demand consumers underweight out of pocket costs relative to premiums and fail to consider the individualized consequences of plan characteristics; as a result, they frequently choose plans which are dominated in the sense that an alternative plan provides better risk protection at a lower cost. We find limited evidence that the sickest individuals had more difficulty with plan choice, and we document that much of the variation in potential cost savings across states comes from variation in choice sets, not variation in consumers ability to choose.