2007

Estimating the Health Effects of Retirement

UM07-08A0807C , UM07-08
We estimate the magnitude of any direct effect of retirement on health. Sinceretirement is endogenous to heath, it is not possible to estimate this effect by comparing the health of individuals before and after they retire. As an alternative we…

Take-Up of Medicare Part D and the SSA Subsidy: Early Results from the Health and Retirement Study

We analyze newly available data from the Health and Retirement Study on senior citizens’ takeup of Medicare Part D and the associated SSA Low-Income Subsidy. We find that economic factors – specifically, demand for prescription drugs - drove the decision…

The Welfare Cost of Asymmetric Information: Evidence from the U.K. Annuity Market

Much of the extensive empirical literature on insurance markets has focused on whether adverse selection can be detected. Once detected, however, there has been little attempt to quantify its importance. We start by showing theoretically that the  efficiency cost of…

The Future of American Fertility

The level of fertility in a population is the principal determinant of the shape of its age structure, which in turn is a critical factor in the terms of trade within a pay-as-you-go system of public pensions. Fertility has fallen…

Children and Household Wealth

This paper focuses on the effects that children have on life-cycle wealth accumulation. We start examining the effects of children using a simple permanent income model with no uncertainty and complete markets. But this framework does not come close to…

Life-cycle Asset Allocation with Annuity Markets: Is Longevity Insurance a Good Deal?

We derive the optimal portfolio choice over the life-cycle for households facing labor income, capital market, and mortality risk. In addition to stocks and bonds, households also have access to incomplete annuity markets offering a hedge against mortality risk. We…

Inflation Bets or Deflation Hedges? The Changing Risks of Nominal Bonds

The covariance between US Treasury bond returns and stock returns has moved considerably over time. While it was slightly positive on average in the period 1953— 2005, it was particularly high in the early 1980’s and negative in the early…
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