Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement?

Mariacristina De Nardi, Eric French, John Bailey Jones and Rory McGee

Cambridge Working Papers in Economics from Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Abstract: While the savings of retired singles tend to fall with age, those of retired couples tend to rise. We estimate a rich model of retired singles and couples with bequest motives and uncertain longevity and medical expenses. Our estimates imply that while medical expenses are an important driver of the savings of middle-income singles, bequest motives matter for couples and highincome singles and generate transfers to nonspousal heirs whenever a household member dies. The interaction of medical expenses and bequest motives is a crucial determinant of savings for all retirees. Hence, to understand savings, it is important to model household structure, medical expenses, and bequest motives.

Keywords: Savings; bequests; medical spending (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 D14 D15 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-10-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cwa, nep-dge and nep-hea
Note: ebf26
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement? (2021)
Working Paper: Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement? (2021)
Working Paper: Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement? (2021)
Working Paper: Why do couples and singles save during retirement? (2021)
Working Paper: Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement? (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cam:camdae:2172

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