Life-cycle consumption patterns at older ages in the US and the UK: can medical expenditures explain the difference?

James Banks, Richard Blundell (), Peter Levell and James Smith ()
Additional contact information
James Smith: Institute for Fiscal Studies and RAND Corporation

No W16/16, IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies

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. This working paper was updated on 10/09/18.

Keywords: Life-Cycle; Consumption; Medical Expenditures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D11 D12 D14 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/wps/WP201616%20updated.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/wps/WP201616%20updated.pdf [302 Found]--> https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/wps/WP201616%20updated.pdf)

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:ifs:ifsewp:16/16

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies The Institute for Fiscal Studies 7 Ridgmount Street LONDON WC1E 7AE. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emma Hyman ().