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What's Wrong with Annuity Markets?

Author

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  • Pei Cheng Yu

    (School of Economics, UNSW)

  • Stephane Verani

    (Federal Reserve Board of Governors)

Abstract

The annuity market in the US has been historically small. What drives this fact? The annuity market could be small because of adverse selection or supply-side frictions in insurance markets. Identifying demand- and supply-side frictions is difficult without data separately measuring exogenous shocks and endogenous responses. In this paper, we provide a novel identification using annuity price data and regulatory capital requirements. Using publicly available data, we document a robust relationship between shocks originating in the corporate bond market and annuity price markups. We show that this relationship supports a standard model of adverse selection with an incomplete bond market.

Suggested Citation

  • Pei Cheng Yu & Stephane Verani, 2020. "What's Wrong with Annuity Markets?," Discussion Papers 2020-10, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2020-10
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    File URL: http://research.economics.unsw.edu.au/RePEc/papers/2020-10.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    life insurance; annuities; corporate bond market; limited liability; interest rate risk management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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