IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v157y2023ics0165188923001653.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life cycle insurance, bequest motives and annuity loads

Author

Listed:
  • Arandjelović, Aleksandar
  • Kingston, Geoffrey
  • Shevchenko, Pavel V.

Abstract

We investigate insurance purchases when bequest motives are age-varying and life insurance and life annuities both carry loads. The existing life cycle literature assumes bequests are normal goods without being either necessities or luxuries. Much of the literature also assumes implicitly that life annuity loads are negative. A key finding of the literature is that the demand for life insurance and the demand for life annuities are symmetrical. It is optimal to buy life-contingent insurance throughout life, even under loads. A life annuity phase backs directly onto a life insurance phase. We find that realistic examples with positive loads on both products reveal up to two distinct periods of non-participation, one in midlife and the other adjoining the maximum age. We highlight examples with necessity bequests during child-rearing years and luxury bequests thereafter. This set of assumptions explains why a substantial demand for life insurance during child-rearing years can co-exist with negligible demand for life annuities later on. A realistic 18% load on both products generates this outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Arandjelović, Aleksandar & Kingston, Geoffrey & Shevchenko, Pavel V., 2023. "Life cycle insurance, bequest motives and annuity loads," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0165188923001653
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2023.104759
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188923001653
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jedc.2023.104759?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. Christopher D Carroll, 1997. "Why Do the Rich Save So Much?," Economics Working Paper Archive 388, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    2. Lee M. Lockwood, 2018. "Incidental Bequests and the Choice to Self-Insure Late-Life Risks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(9), pages 2513-2550, September.
    3. Murphy, Kevin M & Welch, Finis, 1990. "Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 202-229, April.
    4. Peijnenburg, Kim & Nijman, Theo & Werker, Bas J.M., 2016. "The annuity puzzle remains a puzzle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 18-35.
    5. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. 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.
    7. Richard, Scott F., 1975. "Optimal consumption, portfolio and life insurance rules for an uncertain lived individual in a continuous time model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 187-203, June.
    8. Brown, Jeffrey R. & Finkelstein, Amy, 2007. "Why is the market for long-term care insurance so small?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(10), pages 1967-1991, November.
    9. 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, February.
    10. Menahem E. Yaari, 1965. "Uncertain Lifetime, Life Insurance, and the Theory of the Consumer," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(2), pages 137-150.
    11. Merton, Robert C., 1971. "Optimum consumption and portfolio rules in a continuous-time model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 373-413, December.
    12. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    13. M. H. A. Davis & A. R. Norman, 1990. "Portfolio Selection with Transaction Costs," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 676-713, November.
    14. Fischer, Stanley, 1973. "A Life Cycle Model of Life Insurance Purchases," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(1), pages 132-152, February.
    15. Pashchenko, Svetlana, 2013. "Accounting for non-annuitization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 53-67.
    16. Huang, Huaxiong & Milevsky, Moshe A., 2008. "Portfolio choice and mortality-contingent claims: The general HARA case," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(11), pages 2444-2452, November.
    17. Adam Lenart, 2014. "The moments of the Gompertz distribution and maximum likelihood estimation of its parameters," Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2014(3), pages 255-277.
    18. Magill, Michael J. P. & Constantinides, George M., 1976. "Portfolio selection with transactions costs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 245-263, October.
    19. Pliska, Stanley R. & Ye, Jinchun, 2007. "Optimal life insurance purchase and consumption/investment under uncertain lifetime," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 1307-1319, May.
    20. Hakansson, Nils H, 1969. "Optimal Investment and Consumption Strategies under Risk, an Uncertain Lifetime, and Insurance," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 10(3), pages 443-466, October.
    21. Heijdra, Ben J. & Mierau, Jochen O. & Reijnders, S. M., 2014. "A Tragedy Of Annuitization? Longevity Insurance In General Equilibrium," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(7), pages 1607-1634, October.
    22. Lee Lockwood, 2012. "Bequest Motives and the Annuity Puzzle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(2), pages 226-243, April.
    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. Aleksandar Arandjelovi'c & Geoffrey Kingston & Pavel V. Shevchenko, 2023. "Life cycle insurance, bequest motives and annuity loads," Papers 2310.06274, arXiv.org.
    2. Kwak, Minsuk & Shin, Yong Hyun & Choi, U Jin, 2011. "Optimal investment and consumption decision of a family with life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 176-188, March.
    3. repec:ulb:ulbeco:2013/340821 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Xu, Mengyi & Alonso-García, Jennifer & Sherris, Michael & Shao, Adam W., 2023. "Insuring longevity risk and long-term care: Bequest, housing and liquidity," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 121-141.
    5. Fang, H., 2016. "Insurance Markets for the Elderly," 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 237-309, Elsevier.
    6. Huang, H. & Milevsky, M.A. & Salisbury, T.S., 2017. "Retirement spending and biological age," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 58-76.
    7. Zhang, Jinhui & Purcal, Sachi & Wei, Jiaqin, 2021. "Optimal life insurance and annuity demand under hyperbolic discounting when bequests are luxury goods," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(PA), pages 80-90.
    8. de Kort, J. & Vellekoop, M.H., 2017. "Existence of optimal consumption strategies in markets with longevity risk," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 107-121.
    9. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2016. "Savings After Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 177-204, October.
    10. Svetlana Pashchenko & Ponpoje Porapakkarm, 2022. "Value of life and annuity demand," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(2), pages 371-396, June.
    11. Zhao, Kai, 2015. "The impact of the correlation between health expenditure and survival probability on the demand for insurance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 98-111.
    12. Schendel, Lorenz S., 2014. "Consumption-investment problems with stochastic mortality risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 43, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    13. 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.
    14. Yang Wang & Jianwei Lin & Dandan Chen & Jizhou Zhang, 2023. "Optimal Investment–Consumption–Insurance Problem of a Family with Stochastic Income under the Exponential O-U Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Huaxiong Huang & Moshe A. Milevsky & Jin Wang, 2008. "Portfolio Choice and Life Insurance: The CRRA Case," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 847-872, December.
    16. Alex S. L. Tse, 2018. "Dividend Policy and Capital Structure of a Defaultable Firm," Papers 1810.03501, arXiv.org.
    17. Wenyuan Li & Pengyu Wei, 2024. "Optimal life insurance and annuity decision under money illusion," Papers 2410.20128, arXiv.org.
    18. Svetlana Pashchenko & Ponpoje Porapakkarm, 2024. "Accounting For Social Security Claiming Behavior," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 505-545, February.
    19. Wei-Ting Pan, 2016. "The Impact of Mandatory Savings on Life Cycle Consumption and Portfolio Choice," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 2-2016, January-A.
    20. Heijdra, Ben J. & Mierau, Jochen O. & Trimborn, Timo, 2017. "Stimulating annuity markets," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(4), pages 554-583, October.
    21. repec:dgr:rugsom:14015-eef is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Alex S. L. Tse, 2020. "Dividend policy and capital structure of a defaultable firm," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 961-994, July.

    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:eee:dyncon:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0165188923001653. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    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.