IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jrinsu/v72y2005i2p302-320.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Implied Longevity Yield: A Note on Developing an Index for Life Annuities

Author

Listed:
  • Moshe A. Milevsky

Abstract

I develop an index for tracking the dynamic behavior of life (pension) annuity payouts over time, based on the concept of self‐annuitization. Our implied longevity yield (ILY) value is defined equal to the internal rate of return (IRR) over a fixed deferral period that an individual would have to earn on their investable wealth if they decided to self‐annuitize using a systematic withdrawal plan. A larger ILY number indicates a greater relative benefit from immediate annuitization. I use age 65—with a 10‐year period certain—compared against the same annuity at age 75 as the standard benchmark for the index, and calibrate to a comprehensive time series of weekly (Canadian) life annuity quotes from 2000 through 2004. I find that during this period the ILY varied from 5.45 percent to 6.90 percent for males and from 5.00 percent to 6.42 percent for females and was highly correlated with a duration‐weighted average yield of 10‐year and long‐term Government of Canada bonds. I believe our ILY metric can help promote and explain the benefits of acquiring lifetime payout annuities by translating the abstract‐sounding longevity insurance into more concrete and measurable financial rates of return.

Suggested Citation

  • Moshe A. Milevsky, 2005. "The Implied Longevity Yield: A Note on Developing an Index for Life Annuities," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 302-320, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:72:y:2005:i:2:p:302-320
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6975.2005.00124.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2005.00124.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2005.00124.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Davidoff & Jeffrey R. Brown & Peter A. Diamond, 2005. "Annuities and Individual Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1573-1590, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Post & Helmut Gründl & Hato Schmeiser, 2006. "Portfolio management and retirement: what is the best arrangement for a family?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 20(3), pages 265-285, September.
    2. Stone Charles A. & Zissu Anne, 2007. "Managing Viagers Securitization and Life Extension Risk," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Yang, Jaehwan & Yuh, Yoonkyung, 2019. "Reverse Mortgages for Managing Longevity Risk in Korea," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 60(1), pages 21-40, June.
    4. Yuh, Yoonkyung & Yang, Jaehwan, 2011. "The Valuation and Redistribution Effect of the Korea National Pension," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 52(1), pages 113-142, June.
    5. Horneff, Wolfram & Maurer, Raimond & Rogalla, Ralph, 2010. "Dynamic portfolio choice with deferred annuities," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2652-2664, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Gazzale & Julian Jamison & Alexander Karlan & Dean Karlan, 2013. "Ambiguous Solicitation: Ambiguous Prescription," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 1002-1011, January.
    2. Feigenbaum, James & Gahramanov, Emin & Tang, Xueli, 2013. "Is it really good to annuitize?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 116-140.
    3. Joseph Briggs & Christopher Tonetti, 2019. "Risky Insurance: Insurance Portfolio Choice with Incomplete Markets," 2019 Meeting Papers 1388, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Oliwia Komada & Krzysztof Makarski & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2017. "Welfare effects of fiscal policy in reforming the pension system," GRAPE Working Papers 11, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    5. Sanchez-Romero, Miguel, 2006. "“Demand for Private Annuities and Social Security: Consequences to Individual Wealth”," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2006/07, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    6. Wang, Ting & Young, Virginia R., 2012. "Maximizing the utility of consumption with commutable life annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 352-369.
    7. Kam Ki Tang & Jie Zhang, 2007. "Morbidity, Mortality, Health Expenditures and Annuitization," CESifo Working Paper Series 2086, CESifo.
    8. Bravo, Jorge Miguel & El Mekkaoui de Freitas, Najat, 2018. "Valuation of longevity-linked life annuities," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 212-229.
    9. Cormac O'Dea & David Sturrock, 2019. "Survival pessimism and the demand for annuities," IFS Working Papers W19/02, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Johannes Hagen, 2015. "The determinants of annuitization: evidence from Sweden," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(4), pages 549-578, August.
    11. James Poterba & Steven Venti & David Wise, 2011. "The Composition and Drawdown of Wealth in Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    12. Hippolyte d’Albis & Emmanuel Thibault, 2018. "Ambiguous life expectancy and the demand for annuities," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 85(3), pages 303-319, October.
    13. Park, Youngkyun & Banerjee, Sudipto, 2020. "Coworker influence on annuitization decisions: Evidence from defined benefit plans," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 582-606.
    14. Louis Kaplow, 2009. "Utility from Accumulation," NBER Working Papers 15595, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Mouna Zerriaa & Mohamed Marouen Amiri & Hedi Noubbigh & Kamel Naoui, 2017. "Determinants of Life Insurance Demand in Tunisia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 69-80, March.
    16. Butler, Monika & Teppa, Federica, 2005. "Should You Take a Lump-Sum or Annuitize? Results from Swiss Pension Funds," CEPR Discussion Papers 5316, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Hanming Fang & Michael P. Keane & Dan Silverman, 2008. "Sources of Advantageous Selection: Evidence from the Medigap Insurance Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(2), pages 303-350, April.
    18. d’Albis, Hippolyte & El Mekkaoui, Najat & Legendre, Bérangère, 2023. "Health accidents and wealth decline in old age," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    19. Kumru, Cagri S. & Thanopoulos, Athanasios C., 2011. "Social security reform with self-control preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 886-899.
    20. Peijnenburg, J.M.J. & Nijman, T.E. & Werker, B.J.M., 2010. "Optimal Annuitization with Incomplete Annuity Markets and Background Risk During Retirement," Other publications TiSEM 0b8e2130-a64a-48c1-97d6-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jrinsu:v:72:y:2005:i:2:p:302-320. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ariaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.