This paper investigates whether there is evidence of ex-ante moral hazard in health insurance—i.e., whether lower out-of-pocket costs lead to risky health behaviors. Understanding the role of ex-ante moral hazard is crucial, given that it can contribute to preventable health issues. I leverage the staggered rollout of U.S. state policies lowering insulin out-of-pocket costs and focus on privately insured households with diabetes. Using household-level grocery purchase data, I find that reduced insulin out-of-pocket costs result in increased purchases of sugar, a nutrient closely tied to insulin needs and linked to long-term health risks. Sales of diabetes supplies also rise, highlighting a shift from lifestyle management to treatment.
Governments approve climate change legislation while simultaneously spending a large share of their budgets purchasing goods and services from private firms. It is unclear whether this spending is aligned with their own climate goals. Using a novel dataset spanning 2015--2024 that combines the universe of Italian procurement contracts with firm-level financial data and a measure of green investment intensity, we study the effect of public procurement on firms' green investments. We find that higher reliance on public procurement leads to lower green investment. Firms securing revenues from a government buyer that does not condition demand on environmental performance are insulated from market-based decarbonization pressure. This effect is stronger in high-decarbonization pressure periods and for firms that are less financially constrained.