How Do Retirees Value Life Annuities? Evidence from Public Employees
48 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2010 Last revised: 12 Feb 2012
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How Do Retirees Value Life Annuities? Evidence from Public Employees
How Do Retirees Value Life Annuities? Evidence from Public Employees
Date Written: December 18, 2011
Abstract
Economists have long been puzzled by the low demand for life annuities. To shed new light on this puzzle, we study payout choices in the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System, where each retiree must choose between a lump sum and a life annuity. Notably, the average life annuity we study is better than actuarially fair when compared to the lump sum and 85% of retirees choose the life annuity. Whether and how retirees respond to variation in the value of life annuity payments depends crucially on the source of variation. We find strong evidence that demand responds to variation in retiree characteristics. In contrast, we find little evidence that demand responds to plausibly exogenous variation in annuity pricing, which is economically meaningful but less salient. Finally, we find robust evidence that demand for the lump sum increases with recent equity market returns and other salient measures of investor sentiment.
Keywords: Retirement, Annuity, Lump sum, Under-annuitization puzzle, Household finance
JEL Classification: H55, D14, G11, G22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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