Who Values the Social Security Annuity? New Evidence on the Annuity Puzzle
30 Pages Posted: 13 Feb 2008
Date Written: February 2008
Abstract
We examine individuals' self-reported willingness to exchange part of their Social Security inflation-indexed annuity benefit for an immediate lump-sum payment, using an experimental module in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study. Our first finding is that nearly three out of five respondents favor the lump-sum payment if it were approximately actuarially fair, a finding that casts doubt on several leading explanations for why more people do not annuitize. Second, there is some modest price sensitivity and evidence consistent with adverse selection; in particular, people in better health and having more optimistic longevity expectations are more likely to choose the annuity. Third, after controlling on education, more financially literate individuals prefer the annuity. Fourth, people anticipating future Social Security benefit reductions are more likely to choose the lump-sum, suggesting that political risk matters. Other factors such as sex, marital status, income, wealth, or the presence of children are not associated with respondents' relative preferences for the annuity versus the lump-sum.
JEL Classification: H0, H55, J14, J26
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
New Evidence on the Money's Worth of Individual Annuities
By Olivia S. Mitchell, James M. Poterba, ...
-
The Cost of Annuities: Implications for Saving Behavior and Bequests
-
Annuities and Individual Welfare
By Thomas Davidoff, Jeffrey R. Brown, ...
-
Annuities and Individual Welfare
By Thomas Davidoff, Jeffrey R. Brown, ...
-
The Role of Real Annuities and Indexed Bonds in an Individual Accounts Retirement Program
By Jeffrey R. Brown, Olivia S. Mitchell, ...
-
Joint Life Annuities and Annuity Demand by Married Couples
By Jeffrey R. Brown and James M. Poterba
-
Private Pensions, Mortality Risk, and the Decision to Annuitize
-
Longevity-Insured Retirement Distributions from Pension Plans: Market and Regulatory Issues