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  3. American Economic Review
  4. December 2005
  5. Annuities and Individual Welfare

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Annuities and Individual Welfare

  • Thomas Davidoff
  • Jeffrey R. Brown
  • Peter A. Diamond
American Economic Review
vol. 95, no. 5, December 2005
(pp. 1573–1590)
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Abstract

Advancing annuity demand theory, we present sufficient conditions for the optimality of full annuitization under market completeness which are substantially less restrictive than those used by Menahem E. Yaari (1965). We examine demand with market incompleteness, finding that positive annuitization remains optimal widely, but complete annuitization does not. How uninsured medical expenses affect demand for illiquid annuities depends critically on the timing of the risk. A new set of calculations with optimal consumption trajectories very different from available annuity income streams still shows a preference for considerable annuitization, suggesting that limited annuity purchases are plausibly due to psychological or behavioral biases.

Citation

Davidoff, Thomas, Jeffrey R. Brown, and Peter A. Diamond. 2005. "Annuities and Individual Welfare." American Economic Review, 95 (5): 1573–1590. DOI: 10.1257/000282805775014281

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D64 Altruism; Philanthropy
  • D91 Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
  • G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies