Annuity Values in Defined Contribution Retirement Systems: The Case of Singapore and Australia

Suzanne Doyle, Olivia Mitchell and John Piggott

No 8091, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In this paper we derive and compare the value of life annuity products in an international context. Our specific goal is to assess the money's worth and adverse selection impact of annuities in two countries Singapore and Australia that have mandatory DC-type retirement plans. This similarity in plan type is offset by differences in the two countries' national retirement policies. Our comparison therefore exploits the natural experiment in annuity pricing and purchase behaviour under alternative retirement regimes. The results show that after controlling on administrative loadings, there appear to be important differences in measured adverse selection across countries. Specifically, selection appears to be far stronger in the presence of a generous public benefit scheme that provides a first line of defence against the risk of old-age poverty.

JEL-codes: G23 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-01
Note: LS PE AG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Doyle, Suzanne, Olivia S. Mitchell and John Piggott. "Annuity Values In Defined Contribution Retirement Systems: Australia And Singapore Compared," Australian Economic Review, 2004, v37(4,Dec), 402-416.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8091.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:nbr:nberwo:8091

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8091

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().