How Deep Is the Annuity Market Participation Puzzle?

Joachim Inkmann (), Paula Lopes and Alexander Michaelides

The Review of Financial Studies, 2011, vol. 24, issue 1, 279-319

Abstract: Using microeconomic data for the United Kingdom, we analyze the empirical determinants of voluntary annuity market demand. We find that annuity market participation increases with financial wealth, life expectancy, and education and decreases with other pension income and a possible bequest motive for surviving spouses. We then show that these empirically motivated determinants of annuity market participation have the same, quantitatively important, effects in a life-cycle model of annuity and life insurance demand, saving, and portfolio choice. Moreover, reasonable preference parameters predict annuity demand levels comparable to the data. For stockholders, a strong bequest motive can simultaneously generate balanced portfolios and low annuity demand. The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org., Oxford University Press.

Date: 2011
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Related works:
Working Paper: How Deep is the Annuity Market Participation Puzzle? (2010)
Working Paper: How Deep is the Annuity Market Participation Puzzle? (2009)
Working Paper: How deep is the annuity market participation puzzle? (2009)
Working Paper: How deep is the annuity market participation puzzle? (2007)
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