Abstract
This randomised study evaluates demand for parametric heat insurance among informal women workers in India. The insurance product, designed by the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), provides automatic payments to informal workers when district-level temperatures exceed 43°C for two consecutive days.
We test whether experiential learning (via an "insurance game") increases willingness to pay for this novel product. Participants are randomly assigned at the individual level to either a control group, who receive standardised verbal information about the product, or a treatment group that additionally plays an interactive game simulating two years of weather during the month of May (typically the hottest month of the year). In the game, participants draw random weather cards and work with the enumerator to calculate payouts under these randomly drawn scenarios. We elicit willingness to pay using an open-ended question followed by a bidding ladder. We consider the measure incentive compatible because respondents are told they will be contacted by SEWA administration to collect the amount they are willing to pay. In addition to collecting willingness-to-pay in the lab during February 2026, we will also observe real sign-ups in SEWA's administrative data during the 2026 hot season.
We also seek to understand which factors most influence demand. To test the role of product characteristics, we implement a discrete choice module where participants choose between alternative insurance designs varying in price and product attributes. To examine other demand factors - risk tolerance, climate beliefs, financial experience and heat exposure - and estimate heterogeneous treatment effects, we collect extensive baseline data.