IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/uaajxx/v17y2013i2p114-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Insurance Purchasing to Maximize Utility of Household Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Erhan Bayraktar
  • Virginia Young

Abstract

We determine the optimal amount of life insurance for a household of two wage earners. We consider the simple case of exponential utility, thereby removing wealth as a factor in buying life insurance, while retaining the relationship among life insurance, income, and the probability of dying and thus losing that income. For insurance purchased via a single premium or premium payable continuously, we explicitly determine the optimal death benefit. We show that if the premium is determined to target a specific probability of loss per policy, then the rates of consumption are identical under single premium or continuously payable premium. Thus, not only is equivalence of consumption achieved for the households under the two premium schemes, it is also obtained for the insurance company in the sense of equivalence of loss probabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Erhan Bayraktar & Virginia Young, 2013. "Life Insurance Purchasing to Maximize Utility of Household Consumption," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 114-135.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:uaajxx:v:17:y:2013:i:2:p:114-135
    DOI: 10.1080/10920277.2013.793159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10920277.2013.793159
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10920277.2013.793159?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Kraft, Holger & Steffensen, Mogens, 2008. "Optimal Consumption and Insurance: A Continuous-time Markov Chain Approach," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 231-257, May.
    3. Jennifer L. Wang & H.C. Huang & Sharon S. Yang & Jeffrey T. Tsai, 2010. "An Optimal Product Mix for Hedging Longevity Risk in Life Insurance Companies: The Immunization Theory Approach," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(2), pages 473-497, June.
    4. Milevsky, Moshe A. & Young, Virginia R., 2007. "Annuitization and asset allocation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 3138-3177, September.
    5. Monique Jeanblanc & Peter Lakner & Ashay Kadam, 2004. "Optimal Bankruptcy Time and Consumption/Investment Policies on an Infinite Horizon with a Continuous Debt Repayment Until Bankruptcy," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 649-671, August.
    6. Bruhn, Kenneth & Steffensen, Mogens, 2011. "Household consumption, investment and life insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 315-325, May.
    7. Merton, Robert C, 1969. "Lifetime Portfolio Selection under Uncertainty: The Continuous-Time Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(3), pages 247-257, August.
    8. 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.
    9. Gerber, Hans U., 1974. "On Additive Premium Calculation Principles," ASTIN Bulletin, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 215-222, March.
    10. Nielsen, Peter Holm & Steffensen, Mogens, 2008. "Optimal investment and life insurance strategies under minimum and maximum constraints," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 15-28, August.
    11. 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.
    12. Campbell, Ritchie A, 1980. "The Demand for Life Insurance: An Application of the Economics of Uncertainty," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(5), pages 1155-1172, December.
    13. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liang, Xiaoqing & Young, Virginia R., 2018. "Annuitization and asset allocation under exponential utility," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 167-183.
    2. Bayraktar, Erhan & Promislow, S. David & Young, Virginia R., 2014. "Purchasing life insurance to reach a bequest goal," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 204-216.
    3. Chen, An & Ferrari, Giorgio & Zhu, Shihao, 2023. "Striking the Balance: Life Insurance Timing and Asset Allocation in Financial Planning," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 684, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    4. An Chen & Giorgio Ferrari & Shihao Zhu, 2023. "Striking the Balance: Life Insurance Timing and Asset Allocation in Financial Planning," Papers 2312.02943, arXiv.org.
    5. Wei, Jiaqin & Cheng, Xiang & Jin, Zhuo & Wang, Hao, 2020. "Optimal consumption–investment and life-insurance purchase strategy for couples with correlated lifetimes," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 244-256.
    6. Erhan Bayraktar & S. David Promislow & Virginia R. Young, 2015. "Purchasing Term Life Insurance to Reach a Bequest Goal: Time-Dependent Case," North American Actuarial Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 224-236, July.
    7. Erhan Bayraktar & David Promislow & Virginia Young, 2014. "Purchasing Term Life Insurance to Reach a Bequest Goal while Consuming," Papers 1412.2262, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2016.

    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. Christoph Hambel & Holger Kraft & Lorenz S. Schendel & Mogens Steffensen, 2017. "Life Insurance Demand Under Health Shock Risk," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1171-1202, December.
    2. Jarner, Søren Fiig & Kronborg, Morten Tolver, 2016. "Entrance times of random walks: With applications to pension fund modeling," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1-20.
    3. 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.
    4. Schendel, Lorenz S., 2014. "Consumption-investment problems with stochastic mortality risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 43, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    5. Wei, Jiaqin & Cheng, Xiang & Jin, Zhuo & Wang, Hao, 2020. "Optimal consumption–investment and life-insurance purchase strategy for couples with correlated lifetimes," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 244-256.
    6. Kraft, Holger & Schendel, Lorenz S. & Steffensen, Mogens, 2014. "Life insurance demand under health shock risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 40, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    7. Hambel, Christoph, 2020. "Health shock risk, critical illness insurance, and housing services," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 111-128.
    8. Guambe, Calisto & Kufakunesu, Rodwell, 2015. "A note on optimal investment–consumption–insurance in a Lévy market," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 30-36.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Li, Xun & Yu, Xiang & Zhang, Qinyi, 2023. "Optimal consumption and life insurance under shortfall aversion and a drawdown constraint," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 25-45.
    12. 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.
    13. Chen, An & Ferrari, Giorgio & Zhu, Shihao, 2023. "Striking the Balance: Life Insurance Timing and Asset Allocation in Financial Planning," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 684, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.
    14. Wang, Hao & Siu, Tak Kuen & Hu, Shujie & Wang, Ning, 2024. "Life-cycle model with subsistence consumption constraint and state-dependent utilities," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    15. Chen, An & Hentschel, Felix & Klein, Jakob K., 2015. "A utility- and CPT-based comparison of life insurance contracts with guarantees," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 327-339.
    16. Han, Nan-Wei & Hung, Mao-Wei, 2017. "Optimal consumption, portfolio, and life insurance policies under interest rate and inflation risks," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 54-67.
    17. 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.
    18. 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 32, July-Dece.
    19. Lee, Hangsuck & Ryu, Doojin & Son, Jihoon, 2022. "Insurance-adjusted valuation, decision making, and capital return," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Liu, Guo & Jin, Zhuo & Li, Shuanming, 2021. "Household Lifetime Strategies under a Self-Contagious Market," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(3), pages 935-952.

    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:taf:uaajxx:v:17:y:2013:i:2:p:114-135. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/uaaj .

    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.