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Life Insurance and Annuity Demand under Hyperbolic Discounting

Author

Listed:
  • Siqi Tang

    (The QSuper Group, 70 Eagle Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia)

  • Sachi Purcal

    (Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jinhui Zhang

    (Department of Actuarial Studies and Business Analytics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse and construct a lifetime utility maximisation model with hyperbolic discounting. Within the model, a number of assumptions are made: complete markets, actuarially fair life insurance/annuity is available, and investors have time-dependent preferences. Time dependent preferences are in contrast to the usual case of constant preferences (exponential discounting). We find: (1) investors (realistically) demand more life insurance after retirement (in contrast to the standard model, which showed strong demand for life annuities), and annuities are rarely purchased; (2) optimal consumption paths exhibit a humped shape (which is usually only found in incomplete markets under the assumptions of the standard model).

Suggested Citation

  • Siqi Tang & Sachi Purcal & Jinhui Zhang, 2018. "Life Insurance and Annuity Demand under Hyperbolic Discounting," Risks, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-10, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:6:y:2018:i:2:p:43-:d:142704
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. d’Albis, Hippolyte & Attanasi, Giuseppe & Thibault, Emmanuel, 2020. "An experimental test of the under-annuitization puzzle with smooth ambiguity and charitable giving," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 694-717.
    2. Koo, Ja Eun & Lim, Byung Hwa, 2021. "Consumption and life insurance decisions under hyperbolic discounting and taxation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 288-295.
    3. Andreas Lichtenstern & Pavel V. Shevchenko & Rudi Zagst, 2019. "Optimal life-cycle consumption and investment decisions under age-dependent risk preferences," Papers 1908.09976, arXiv.org.
    4. 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.

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