Life-Cycle Consumption Patterns at Older Ages in the US and the UK: Can Medical Expenditures Explain the Difference?

Richard Blundell (), James Banks, Peter Levell and James P Smith

No 11479, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: In this paper we document significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar. We explore several possible causes, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status, number of household members, and out-of - pocket medical expenditures. Among all the potential explanations considered, we find that those to do with healthcare—differences in levels and age paths in medical expenses—can fully account for the steeper declines in nondurable consumption in the UK compared to the US.

JEL-codes: D10 D11 D12 D14 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11479 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Life-cycle consumption patterns at older ages in the US and the UK: can medical expenditures explain the difference? (2016)
Working Paper: Life-Cycle Consumption Patterns at Older Ages in the US and the UK: Can Medical Expenditures Explain the Difference? (2016)
Working Paper: Life-cycle consumption patterns at older ages in the US and the UK: can medical expenditures explain the difference? (2015)
Working Paper: Life-Cycle Consumption Patterns at Older Ages in the US and the UK Can Medical Expenditures Explain the Difference? (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11479

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11479

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().