May 2020

Covid-19, Longevity Risk & the Economics of Annuitization

Although the dire medical situation and mounting economic toll of covid-19 is of immediate and first-order importance, the virus has also prompted many to ponder their own mortality. Whether it’s doctors in emergency rooms who quickly redrafted codicils or nursing home attendants pondering their own DNR instructions, the randomness or mortality is being imprinted on our susceptible behavioral minds. Interestingly, preliminary and anecdotal evidence suggests a spike in the acquisition of life insurance policies over the last few months,...

March 2020

Understanding Debt in the Older Population

By Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell, Noemi Oggero Poor financial capability can have important consequences for wellbeing in later life. To explore aspects of financial management related to debt, we have designed and analyzed a new module in the 2018 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We use these new data, along with information from the 2018 National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), to evaluate the factors associated with debt and debt management close to retirement. We show that a sizeable...