Social Identity and the Formation of Health Insurance Networks

In a panel survey of an informal insurance network in Tanzania we find none of the tell-tale signs that insurance transfers follow reciprocal risk sharing arrangements among self-interested individuals: insurance remittances do not occur through informal loans; transfers are not regressive; and they do not fall when shocks are repeated over time. The evidence of unreciprocated transfers occurring between kin is suggestive of risk sharing based on altruism or social norms.