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Housing liquidity and long-term care insurance demand: A quantitative evaluation

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  • Achou, Bertrand

Abstract

In theory, illiquid housing may substitute for long-term care insurance (LTCI) as retirees decumulate housing wealth mainly when moving to long-term care facilities. In this paper, I build and estimate a rich life-cycle model of single retirees in order to evaluate whether the impact of housing liquidity on LTCI demand is large. Overall, I find that the prospects of increasing LTCI demand by making housing more liquid are quite limited, as even large increases in housing liquidity generate modest increases in LTCI demand. I also find a limited impact of housing liquidity on the demand for life annuities. Finally, I show that the types of bequest motives used to rationalize the low take-up of reverse mortgages are generally inconsistent with the low demand for LTCI, suggesting that other factors may play a role in this low take-up of reverse mortgages.

Suggested Citation

  • Achou, Bertrand, 2021. "Housing liquidity and long-term care insurance demand: A quantitative evaluation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:194:y:2021:i:c:s0047272720302176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104353
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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe De Donder & Marie‐Louise Leroux, 2021. "Long term care insurance with state‐dependent preferences," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 3074-3086, December.
    2. Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Rory McGee, 2023. "Why Do Retired Households Draw Down Their Wealth So Slowly?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 91-114, Fall.
    3. Eric French & Rory McGee & John Bailey Jones, 2022. "Savings after retirement," IFS Working Papers W22/53, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Elaine Kelly & Jeremy McCauley, 2018. "End-of-Life Medical Expenses," Working Paper 18-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    5. Been, Jim & van Ewijk, Casper & Knoef, Marike & Mehlkopf, Roel & Muns, Sander, 2024. "Households’ heterogeneous welfare effects of using home equity for life cycle consumption," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Long-term care; Insurance; Life-cycle; Housing; Liquidity; Retirement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

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