Wealth Depletion and Life Cycle Consumption by the Elderly
48 Pages Posted: 5 Jul 2004 Last revised: 29 Dec 2022
Date Written: October 1990
Abstract
The objective of the work reported in this paper is to find if the consumption data from the six waves of the Retirement History Survey are consistent with the life cycle hypothesis of consumption and to test the importance of a bequest motive for saving. The 12 data items which are used cover an estimated 36% of total consumption; the most important datum is food consumption. The findings support the life cycle hypothesis: as required, measured consumption among the elderly declines with age. A test of the bequest motive for saving based on the variation by extended family stricture in consumption paths provides no support for a bequest motive.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
What Accounts for the Variation in Retirement Wealth Among U.S. Households?
By B. Douglas Bernheim, Jonathan S. Skinner, ...
-
What Accounts for the Variation in Retirement Wealth Among U.S. Households?
By B. Douglas Bernheim, Jonathan S. Skinner, ...
-
Are Americans Saving "Optimally" for Retirement?
By John Karl Scholz, Ananth Seshadri, ...
-
Labor Supply: Are the Income and Substitution Effects Both Large or Both Small?
-
By Mark Aguiar and Erik Hurst
-
The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle: Anticipated and Actual Declines in Spending at Retirement
By Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder
-
The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle: Anticipated and Actual Declines in Spending at Retirement
By Michael D. Hurd and Susann Rohwedder
-
Household Production and the Excess Sensitivity of Consumption to Current Income
By Marianne Baxter and Urban J. Jermann
-
Consumption During Retirement: The Missing Link in the Life Cycle
-
The Effect of Labor Market Rigidities on the Labor Force Behavior of Older Workers