No abstract

Chit Funds are indigenous financial institutions in India that combines credit and savings in a single scheme. In a chit fund scheme, a group of individuals come together for a predetermined time period and contribute to a common pool at regular intervals. In order to understand the intricacies of the chit fund model in India, we studied the size of the registered chit fund industry and how it serves the members. We find that the money circulated in the registered chit fund industry ranges from 10 per cent to 50 per cent of bank finance when compared to the total deposits and credits in the bank. The number of chit schemes registered has been reducing over the years. The average percentage change in the number of schemes registered from 2003 to 2006 is approximately a negative 10 per cent. While the number of schemes has reduced, the total value of registered chit schemes increased by Review of Market Integration 3(3) 287-333 288 Mudit Kapoor et al. Review of Market Integration, 3, 3 (2011): 287-333 approximately 13 per cent from 2003 to 2006. Our survey of the chit fund members shows that as much as 72 per cent of the members participate in chit funds for saving. Additionally, 96 per cent of the current and non-current chit fund members think that chit funds are safe.Majority of the current and non-current chit fund members belong to low-income households. Our study also suggests that the institutional arrangements which govern the functioning of the chit scheme that have emerged seem to serve the interest of all participants irrespective of their socio-economic status. Perhaps, this could explain why this industry has survived for such a long period of time. Our findings point to the fact that though chit funds are an important source of finance for small businesses and low-income households in India, there has been a general exodus of low value chit schemes from the registered chit fund market. This is mainly because registered chit funds find it less lucrative to serve the poor due to the increased cost of operating such schemes imposed by the regulators. We find that the chit fund industry addresses the savings needs of people, is considered very safe and also offers loans at lower interest rates than moneylenders.

This report addresses the effects of disallowing the current practice of increasing only the premiums of silver-tiered individual market plans in response to discontinued federal payments of cost-sharing reductions (silver loading). We consider a scenario in which the costs of costsharing reduction subsidies must be spread among all metal-tiered individual market plans, a practice known as broad loading. We compare the silver loading, or status quo, scenario with the broad loading scenario to estimate the impacts on insurance enrollment, individual market premiums, and federal spending. In addition, we examine a scenario in which federal costsharing reduction payments are restored. The research described in this report was performed under a grant to Families USA from the California Endowment and carried out within the Payment, Cost, and Coverage Program in RAND Health Care. RAND Health Care, a division of the RAND Corporation, promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries. We do this by providing health care decisionmakers, practitioners, and consumers with actionable, rigorous, objective evidence to support their most complex decisions. For more information, see www.rand.org/health-care or contact

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In this report, the authors use RAND's COMPARE microsimulation model to estimate the effects of the elimination of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate penalty in New York State. New York's health care landscape is different than most states', in that New York has community rating on its nongroup market and opted to offer a Basic Health Program to individuals who would otherwise be eligible for subsidies on the nongroup market. The research described in this report was performed under a subcontract to Wakely Consulting Group from a health insurance provider, and the publication was prepared with internal RAND funding. This research was conducted within RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation. A profile of RAND Health, abstracts of its publications, and ordering information can be found at www.rand.org/health.