The Health Economy and Health Insurance Research in the JRI

• Author: James I. Hilliard,Rexford E. Santerre
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Date: 01 March 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6296.2009.01154.x

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Risk Management and Insurance Review, 2009, Vol.12, No. 1, 67-79

THE HEALTH ECONOMY AND HEALTH INSURANCE

RESEARCH IN THE

JRI

Rexford E. Santerre

James I. Hilliard

ABSTRACT

College professors typically expend a considerable amount of time, energy, and

effort on academic research. But only one study to date has demonstrated the

societal benefit of such research by showing that the content of academic re-

search responds to real-world problems.This article adds to this scant literature

by investigating empirically if the prevalence of health insurance articles in the

Journal of Risk and Insurance (JRI) can be explained by the state of the health

economy. According to the findings, both the uninsured rate and health care

spending share are directly related to the percentage of health insurance arti-

cles published in the JRI. Thus, the empirical results suggest that the research

decisions of insurance economists are influenced at the margin by real-world

problems.

INTRODUCTION

Like in many other disciplines, business, health services, and social science professors

typically expend a considerable amount of time, energy, and effort on academic research.

Most believe that the social benefits of academic research outweigh these costs. Among

the benefits, research helps us better understand the behavior and interplay of people

and organizations in the world around us. Armed with this information, institutions and

policies can be created or reformed to improve societal welfare. In addition, research

keeps faculty up to date about new developments in their fields, which they can share

with their students in the classroom.

It stands to reason that academic research devoted to timely and socially important

topics provides greater external benefits. If so, one might investigate if currentreal-world

Rexford E. Santerre, Professor of Finance and Healthcare Management, Department of Fi-

nance, School of Business, University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Road, Unit 1041, Storrs,

CT 06269-1041; phone: 860-486-6422; fax: 860-486-0634; e-mail: rsanterre@business.uconn.edu.

James I. Hilliard, Assistant Professor of Risk Management and Insurance, Department of Insur-

ance, Legal Studies and Real Estate, TerryCollege of Business, University of Georgia, 206 Brooks

Hall, Athens, GA 30602; phone: 706-542-3549; e-mail: jih@uga.edu. The authors thank David Pyle

for supplying the membership data for the American Finance Association and David Laband and

the anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful comments and suggestions. This article

was subject to double-blind peer review.

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