Time Preference and Life Cycle Consumption with Endogenous Survival

Arnab K. Acharya and Ronald Balvers

Economic Inquiry, 2004, vol. 42, issue 4, 667-678

Abstract: We provide a structural theory of time preference and derive a functional form of intertemporal preferences by postulating that individuals make their life-cycle consumption choices as if to maximize expected lifetime. This yields a nontime-separable expected utility representation where the inverse of the coefficient of intertemporal substitution exceeds the coefficient of relative risk aversion. The rate of time preference depends on the inverse of expected remaining lifetime and the effect of age on the productivity of consumption in affecting health. The preference formulation is applied in a standard intertemporal consumption model to illustrate the implied life-cycle consumption choices (JEL D91, B41). Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

JEL-codes: B41 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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