Annuitization and aggregate mortality risk

Torben M. Andersen, Marías Halldór Gestsson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

It is well established that annuities can fully diversify idiosyncratic mortality risks. However, survival rates at the cohort level are changing, raising the question what is the scope of annuities in the presence of aggregate mortality risk? In an overlapping generations setting, we show that risk free annuities exist, but offer a return below the (fair) certainty equivalent return, and agents do not fully annuitize their savings. Higher aggregate mortality risk increases savings and thus the mean level of the capital stock. This lowers the mean rate of return on capital, the survival premium on annuities and the share of individual savings in annuities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)79-99
Number of pages21
JournalJournal of Risk and Insurance
Volume88
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: The constructive comments and suggestions from referees and the editor are gratefully acknowledged. The support from the Danish Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 American Risk and Insurance Association

Other keywords

  • aggregate mortality risk
  • annuitization
  • annuity markets
  • dynamic efficiency
  • overlapping generations models

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