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Aging Population, Retirement, and Risk Taking

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  • Haim Levy

    (School of Business, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel)

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy spells disaster at retirement. One can solve this problem by investing in the maximum geometric mean (MGM) portfolio, which is empirically composed from equity. For a T = 30 year horizon or more, the MGM portfolio dominates other investment strategies by almost first-degree stochastic dominance. The MGM portfolio also maximizes the expected value of the commonly employed preferences and prospect theory value function, for various loss aversion parameters and various reference points, for T ≥ 10. Life-cycle funds would increase virtually all investors’ welfare by shifting to the MGM portfolio so long as the investment horizon is at least 10 years. This paper was accepted by Amit Seru, finance.

Suggested Citation

  • Haim Levy, 2016. "Aging Population, Retirement, and Risk Taking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(5), pages 1415-1430, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:62:y:2016:i:5:p:1415-1430
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2015.2184
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Levy, Moshe, 2019. "Stocks for the log-run and constant relative risk aversion preferences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(3), pages 1163-1168.
    2. Moshe Levy, 2020. "Comment on “Aging Population, Retirement, and Risk Taking”," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2787-2791, June.
    3. Adam Butt & Gaurav Khemka & Geoffrey J. Warren, 2019. "What Dividend Imputation Means for Retirement Savers," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 95(309), pages 181-199, June.
    4. Tzu-Ying Chen & Yi-Hsin Elsa Hsu & Rachel J. Huang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2021. "Making socioeconomic health inequality comparisons when health concentration curves intersect," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(4), pages 875-899, November.
    5. Chin Hon Tan & Chunling Luo, 2017. "Clear Preferences Under Partial Distribution Information," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 65-73, March.
    6. Cheung, Yan-Leung & Mak, Billy S.C. & Shu, Hao & Tan, Weiqiang, 2023. "Impact of financial investment on confidence in a happy future retirement," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

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