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Life expectancy and old age savings

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Author Info

  • Mariacristina De Nardi
  • Eric French
  • John Bailey Jones

Abstract

Rich people, women, and healthy people live longer. We document that this heterogeneity in life expectancy is large. We use an estimated structural model to assess the impact of life expectancy variation on the elderly’s savings. We find that the differences in life expectancy related to observable factors such as health, gender, and income have large effects on savings, and that these factors contribute by similar amounts. We also show that the risk of outliving one’s expected lifespan has a large effect on the elderly’s saving behavior.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-08-18.

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Date of creation: 2009
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-18

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Keywords: Wealth ; Retirement income;

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References

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  1. Michael D. Hurd & Daniel McFadden & Angela Merrill, 2001. "Predictors of Mortality among the Elderly," NBER Chapters, in: Themes in the Economics of Aging, pages 171-198 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Angus Deaton, 1989. "Saving and Liquidity Constraints," NBER Working Papers 3196, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. R. Glenn Hubbard & Jonathan Skinner & Stephen P. Zeldes, 1994. "The Importance of Precautionary Motives in Explaining Individual and Aggregate Saving," NBER Working Papers 4516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Daniel Feenberg & Jonathan Skinner, 1992. "The Risk and Duration of Catastrophic Health Care Expenditures," NBER Working Papers 4147, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Li Gan & Guan Gong & Michael Hurd & Daniel McFadden, 2004. "Subjective Mortality Risk and Bequests," NBER Working Papers 10789, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2006. "Differential Mortality, Uncertain Medical Expenses, and the Saving of Elderly Singles," NBER Working Papers 12554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Karen E. Dynan & Jonathan Skinner & Stephen P. Zeldes, 2004. "Do the Rich Save More?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 397-444, April.
  8. Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2004. "On the distribution and dynamics of health care costs," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(6), pages 705-721.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Explaining heterogeneity in individual saving rates
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-01-24 02:38:00
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Cited by:
  1. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John B. Jones, 2010. "Why Do the Elderly Save? The Role of Medical Expenses," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(1), pages 39-75, 02.
  2. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2010. "The Effects of Medicaid and Medicare Reforms on the Elderly’s Savings and Medical Expenditures," Working Papers wp236, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
  3. Okumura, Tsunao & Usui, Emiko, 2012. "The Effect of Pension Reform on Pension-Benefit Expectations and Savings Decisions in Japan," CIS Discussion paper series 559, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
  4. Kam-Ki Tang & Benjamin ShiJie Wong, . "The Ageing, Longevity and Crowding Out Effects on Private and Public Savings: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Analysis," MRG Discussion Paper Series 3409, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
  5. Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka, 2009. "Accounting for Imputed and Capital Income Flows in Income Inequality Analyses," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 254, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
  6. Thomas Post & Katja Hanewald, 2010. "Stochastic Mortality, Subjective Survival Expectations, and Individual Saving Behavior," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2010-040, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
  7. Halliday, Timothy J. & He, Hui & Zhang, Hao, 2009. "Health Investment over the Life-Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 4482, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Davoine, Thomas, 2012. "Time constraints, saving and old age," Economics Working Paper Series 1221, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
  9. Brighita Negrusa & Sonia Oreffice, 2010. "Sexual orientation and household savings: do homosexual couples save more?," Working Papers. Serie AD 2010-21, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
  10. Thomas Post & Katja Hanewald, 2011. "Longevity Risk, Subjective Survival Expectations, and Individual Saving Behavior," Working Papers 201111, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales.

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