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Differential mortality and wealth accumulation

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Author Info
O. Attanasio
H. W. Hoynes

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Abstract

An issue central to the life-cycle theory of consumer behavior, and to many policy questions, is asset accumulation and decumulation. One of the main implications of the life-cycle model is that assets are decumulated in the last part of life. Most empirical studies of asset accumulation use cross-sectional data to estimate mean or median wealth-age profiles, but the use of cross sections to estimate the age profile of assets is full of pitfalls. If, for example, wealth and mortality are related, in that poorer individuals die at a younger age, one overestimates the last part of the wealth-age profile when using cross-sectional data because means (or other measures of location) are taken over a population which becomes "richer" as it ages. In our examination of the effect of differential mortality on cross-sectional estimates of wealth-age profiles, we quantify the dependence of mortality rates on wealth and then use these estimates to "correct" wealth-age profiles for sample selection due to differential mortality. We estimate mortality rates as a function of wealth and age for a sample of married couples drawn from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Our results show that accounting for differential mortality produces wealth profiles with significantly more dissaving among the elderly.

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Paper provided by University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty in its series Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers with number 1079-96.

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Handle: RePEc:wop:wispod:1079-96

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Mervyn A. King & Louis Dicks-Mireaux, 1982. "Asset Holdings and the Life Cycle," NBER Working Papers 0614, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Davies, James B, 1981. "Uncertain Lifetime, Consumption, and Dissaving in Retirement," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(3), pages 561-77, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Attanasio, Orazio P., 1993. "An analysis of life-cycle accumulation of financial assets," Ricerche Economiche, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 323-354, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Michael D. Hurd & David A. Wise, 1989. "The Wealth and Poverty of Widows: Assets Before and After the Husband'sDeath," NBER Working Papers 2325, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Mirer, Thad W, 1979. "The Wealth-Age Relation among the Aged," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(3), pages 435-43, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Hurd, Michael D, 1990. "Research on the Elderly: Economic Status, Retirement, and Consumption and Saving," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 565-637, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Alan S. Blinder & Roger H. Gordon & Donald E. Wise, 1981. "Social Security, Bequests, and the Life Cycle Theory of Saving: Cross-Sectional Tests," NBER Working Papers 0619, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Shorrocks, A F, 1975. "The Age-Wealth Relationship: A Cross-Section and Cohort Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(2), pages 155-63, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. King, M A & Dicks-Mireaux, L-D L, 1982. "Asset Holdings and the Life-Cycle," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(366), pages 247-67, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Michael D. Hurd & Kathleen McGarry, 1993. "Evaluation of Subjective Probability Distributions in the HRS," NBER Working Papers 4560, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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