IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/apjrin/v8y2014i1p1-26n6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Money’s Worth Ratio Calculations: The Case of Singapore’s Pension Annuities

Author

Listed:
  • Fong Joelle H.

    (ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia)

  • Lemaire Jean

    (Department of Statistics, Wharton School, 400 JMHH 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19194-6340, USA)

  • Tse Yiu K.

    (School of Economics, Singapore Management University, 70 Stamford Road, #B1-38a, Singapore 178901, Singapore)

Abstract

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the risks involved in a life annuity investment. We study the full distribution of weighted annuity benefits and quantify risk measures such as dispersion and skewness, thereby extending the usefulness of the popular money’s worth valuation framework for life annuities. Using data from pension annuities in Singapore, we also introduce several risk measures that might appeal to less financially sophisticated retirees. A more detailed and accurate picture of the risk of investing in life annuities emerges, enabling prospective annuitants to differentiate among products that may appear seemingly uniform in terms of money’s worth, but vary widely in terms of their risk attributes.

Suggested Citation

  • Fong Joelle H. & Lemaire Jean & Tse Yiu K., 2014. "Improving Money’s Worth Ratio Calculations: The Case of Singapore’s Pension Annuities," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:apjrin:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:1-26:n:6
    DOI: 10.1515/apjri-2013-0027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/apjri-2013-0027
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/apjri-2013-0027?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Takayama, Noriyuki, 2011. "Securing Lifelong Retirement Income: Global Annuity Markets and Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199594849 edited by Mitchell, Olivia S. & Piggott, John.
    2. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    3. Suzanne Doyle & Olivia S. Mitchell & John Piggott, 2004. "Annuity Values in Defined Contribution Retirement Systems: Australia and Singapore Compared," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 37(4), pages 402-416, December.
    4. Amy Finkelstein & James Poterba, 2004. "Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets: Policyholder Evidence from the U.K. Annuity Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(1), pages 183-208, February.
    5. Edmund Cannon & Ian Tonks, 2002. "Annuity Prices, Money's Worth and Replacement Ratios: UK experience 1972 - 2002," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 02/051, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    6. Joelle H. Y. Fong & Olivia S. Mitchell & Benedict S. K. Koh, 2011. "Longevity Risk Management in Singapore's National Pension System," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 78(4), pages 961-982, December.
    7. Amy Finkelstein & James Poterba, 2002. "Selection Effects in the United Kingdom Individual Annuities Market," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 28-50, January.
    8. Mitchell, Olivia S. & Utkus, Stephen P. (ed.), 2004. "Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral Finance," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199273393.
    9. Thorburn, Craig & Rocha, Roberto & Morales, Marco, 2007. "An analysis of money's worth ratios in Chile," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 287-312, November.
    10. Duxbury, Darren & Summers, Barbara & Hudson, Robert & Keasey, Kevin, 2013. "How people evaluate defined contribution, annuity-based pension arrangements: A behavioral exploration," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 256-269.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sutcliffe, Charles, 2015. "Trading death: The implications of annuity replication for the annuity puzzle, arbitrage, speculation and portfolios," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 163-174.
    2. Mitchell, O.S. & Piggott, J., 2016. "Workplace-Linked Pensions for an Aging Demographic," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 865-904, Elsevier.
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    5. Jaime Casassus & Eduardo Walker, 2013. "Adjusted Money's Worth Ratios in Life Annuities," Documentos de Trabajo 434, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    6. Piggott John R. & Sane Renuka, 2012. "Demographic Shift and Financial Markets in APEC: New Age Solutions to Age Old Challenges," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-28, February.
    7. Duxbury, Darren & Summers, Barbara & Hudson, Robert & Keasey, Kevin, 2013. "How people evaluate defined contribution, annuity-based pension arrangements: A behavioral exploration," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 256-269.
    8. Oded Palmon & Avia Spivak, 2007. "Adverse selection and the market for annuities," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, Springer;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 32(1), pages 37-59, June.
    9. Fajnzylber, Eduardo & Gabrielli, M. Florencia & Willington, Manuel, 2023. "Can transparency increase adverse selection? Evidence from an electronic platform for annuities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    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. Jenny Robinson & David A. Comerford, 2020. "The Effect on Annuities Preference of Prompts to Consider Life Expectancy: Evidence from a UK Quota Sample," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(347), pages 747-762, July.
    12. Cannon, Edmund & Tonks, Ian, 2016. "Cohort mortality risk or adverse selection in annuity markets?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 68-81.
    13. van Rooij, Maarten C.J. & Lusardi, Annamaria & Alessie, Rob J.M., 2011. "Financial literacy and retirement planning in the Netherlands," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 593-608, August.
    14. Bütler, Monika & Peijnenburg, Kim & Staubli, Stefan, 2017. "How much do means-tested benefits reduce the demand for annuities?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 419-449, October.
    15. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Mark R. Cullen, 2010. "Estimating Welfare in Insurance Markets Using Variation in Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 877-921.
    16. Alicia H. Munnell & Gal Wettstein & Wenliang Hou, 2022. "How best to annuitize defined contribution assets?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(1), pages 211-235, March.
    17. José J. Cao‐Alvira & Amalia Novoa‐Hoyos & Alexander Núñez‐Torres, 2021. "On the financial literacy, indebtedness, and wealth of Colombian households," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 978-993, May.
    18. Hazel Bateman & Christine Eckert & Fedor Iskhakov & Jordan Louviere & Stephen Satchell & Susan Thorp, 2017. "Default and naive diversification heuristics in annuity choice," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(1), pages 32-57, February.
    19. Hurwitz, Abigail & Sade, Orly & Winter, Eyal, 2020. "Unintended consequences of minimum annuity laws: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 208-222.
    20. Philippe De Donder & Marie-Louise Leroux & François Salanié, 2023. "Advantageous selection without moral hazard," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 21-43, August.

    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:bpj:apjrin:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:1-26:n:6. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.