Skip Nav Destination
Close Modal
Update search
NARROW
Format
Journal
Date
Availability
1-1 of 1
Cormac O'Dea
Close
Follow your search
Access your saved searches in your account
Would you like to receive an alert when new items match your search?
Sort by
Journal Articles
Survival Pessimism and the Demand for Annuities
Open AccessPublisher: Journals Gateway
The Review of Economics and Statistics (2023) 105 (2): 442–457.
Published: 03 March 2023
Abstract
View articletitled, Survival Pessimism and the Demand for Annuities
View
PDF
for article titled, Survival Pessimism and the Demand for Annuities
The “annuity puzzle” refers to the fact that annuities are rarely purchased despite the longevity insurance they provide. Most explanations for this puzzle assume that individuals have accurate expectations about their future survival. We provide evidence that individuals misperceive their mortality risk and study the demand for annuities in a setting where annuities are priced by insurers on the basis of objectively-measured survival probabilities but in which individuals make purchasing decisions based on their own subjective survival probabilities. Subjective expectations have the capacity to explain significant rates of nonannuitization, yielding a quantitatively important explanation for the annuity puzzle.