Life Expectancy and Old Age Savings

21 Pages Posted: 7 Dec 2008 Last revised: 12 Jan 2009

See all articles by Mariacristina De Nardi

Mariacristina De Nardi

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; University College London, Economics Dpt.; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - Public Economics

Eric French

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS); Faculty of Economics

John Bailey Jones

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; SUNY at Albany - School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 9, 2009

Abstract

Rich people, women, and healthy people live longer. We document that this heterogeneity in life expectancy is large. We use an estimated structural model to assess the impact of life expectancy variation on the elderly's savings. We find that the differences in life expectancy related to observable factors such as health, gender, and income have large effects on savings, and that these factors contribute by similar amounts. We also show that the risk of outliving one's expected lifespan has a large effect on the elderly's saving behavior.

Keywords: Savings, life expectancy, elderly

JEL Classification: D12, D31, E21

Suggested Citation

De Nardi, Mariacristina and De Nardi, Mariacristina and French, Eric and Jones, John B., Life Expectancy and Old Age Savings (January 9, 2009). FRB of Chicago Working Paper No. 2008-18, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1311478 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1311478

Mariacristina De Nardi (Contact Author)

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Eric French

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John B. Jones

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