IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cauewp/201006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Betting on a long life: The role of subjective life expectancy in the demand for private pension insurance of german households

Author

Listed:
  • Schulte, Katharina
  • Zirpel, Ulrike

Abstract

With a view to investigating the presence of adverse selection, we analyze determinants of private pension insurance uptake of German households in a probit model. Using survey data on savings and old-age provision, we find that subjective life expectancy is positively related with the probability of having supplementary private pension insurance. This indicates that the German annuities market is in fact characterized by adverse selection. Furthermore, pre-existing annuities from the public pension system tend to be a substitute to private insurance, while financial literacy enhances the uptake. We also find evidence for a bequest motive in old-age provision, but see no indication for pooling longevity risk within couples.

Suggested Citation

  • Schulte, Katharina & Zirpel, Ulrike, 2010. "Betting on a long life: The role of subjective life expectancy in the demand for private pension insurance of german households," Economics Working Papers 2010-06, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cauewp:201006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/32941/1/627348211.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans-Martin von Gaudecker & Carsten Weber, 2004. "Surprises in a Growing Market Niche: An Evaluation of the German Private Life Annuities Market," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 29(3), pages 394-416, July.
    2. van Rooij, Maarten & Lusardi, Annamaria & Alessie, Rob, 2011. "Financial literacy and stock market participation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 449-472, August.
    3. de Meza, David & Webb, David C, 2001. "Advantageous Selection in Insurance Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(2), pages 249-262, Summer.
    4. Axel Boersch-Supan & Christina B. Wilke, 2004. "The German Public Pension System: How it Was, How it Will Be," NBER Working Papers 10525, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. van Rooij, Maarten & Lusardi, Annamaria & Alessie, Rob, 2011. "Financial literacy and stock market participation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 449-472, August.
    6. von Gaudecker, Hans-Martin & Weber II, Carsten, 2003. "Surprises in a Growing Market Niche - An Evaluation of the German Private Annuities Market," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 03-08, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    7. Bucher-Koenen, Tabea, 2009. "Financial Literacy and Private Old-age Provision in Germany," MEA discussion paper series 09192, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    8. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Reil-Held, Anette & Schunk, Daniel, 2008. "Saving incentives, old-age provision and displacement effects: evidence from the recent German pension reform," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 295-319, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pfarr, Christian & Schneider, Udo, 2011. "Choosing between subsidized or unsubsidized private pension schemes: a random parameters bivariate probit analysis," MPRA Paper 29400, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bucher-Koenen, Tabea, 2011. "Financial Literacy, Riester Pensions, and Other Private Old Age Provision in Germany," MEA discussion paper series 11250, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    2. Bucher-Koenen, Tabea & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2011. "Financial literacy and retirement planning in Germany," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 565-584, October.
    3. Ales S. BERK & Mitja COK & Marko KOSAK & Joze SAMBT, 2013. "CEE Transition from PAYG to Private Pensions: Income Gaps and Asset Allocation," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 63(4), pages 360-381, August.
    4. Marinos Stefanitsis & Irene Fafaliou & Joseph Hassid, 2013. "Similarities and Differences between Households’ and SME’s Financial Knowledge and Behaviour: A Greek Survey," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 63(1-2), pages 7-30, June.
    5. Bucher-Koenen, Tabea & Kluth, Sebastian, 2013. "Subjective Life Expectancy and Private Pensions," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79806, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. repec:mea:meawpa:12261 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Lamla, Bettina, 2012. "Family background, informal networks and the decision to provide for old age: A siblings approach," MEA discussion paper series 201210, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    8. repec:mea:meawpa:12265 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Tullio Jappelli, 2010. "Economic Literacy: An International Comparison," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 429-451, November.
    10. Alisdair McKay, 2011. "Household Saving Behavior and Social Security Privatization," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2011-027, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    11. Dr Samamba, Lennox Trivedi, PhD—Law, 2023. "Legal Aspects of Promoting the Participation of Collective Investment Schemes in Eastern and Southern African Frontier Securities Markets," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(4), pages 121-141, April.
    12. Morten Balling, 2011. "Asymmetries in Financial Information, Risk and Know-how: The Roles of Disclosure Rules, Financial Safety Nets and Market Discipline," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Eric J. Pentecost & Tom Weyman-Jones (ed.), The Financial Crisis and the Regulation of Finance, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Chen, Fuzhong & Hsu, Chien-Lung & Lin, Arthur J. & Li, Haifeng, 2020. "Holding risky financial assets and subjective wellbeing: Empirical evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    14. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2009. "Measuring the Financial Sophistication of Households," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 393-398, May.
    15. C. Andrew Lafond & Bruce Leauby, 2014. "Integrating Financial Literacy Concepts into the Introductory Financial Accounting Course," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 4(5), pages 12-24, May.
    16. Hyrum Smith & Michael Finke & Sandra Huston, 2012. "Financial Sophistication and Housing Leverage Among Older Households," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 315-327, September.
    17. Berdin, Elia, 2016. "Interest rate risk, longevity risk and the solvency of life insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 23/16, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    18. van der Cruijsen, Carin A.B. & Eijffinger, Sylvester C.W., 2010. "From actual to perceived transparency: The case of the European Central Bank," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 388-399, June.
    19. Luigi Guiso & Tullio Jappelli, 2008. "Financial Literacy and Portfolio Diversification," Economics Working Papers ECO2008/31, European University Institute.
    20. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Spaenjers, C., 2009. "Where Angels Fear to Trade : The Role of Religion in Household Finance," Other publications TiSEM 1805b57f-17bc-414f-b553-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    21. Christoph Breunig & Steffen Huck & Tobias Schmidt & Georg Weizsäcker, 2021. "The Standard Portfolio Choice Problem in Germany," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(638), pages 2413-2446.
    22. Joanne W. Hsu, 2016. "Aging and Strategic Learning: The Impact of Spousal Incentives on Financial Literacy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(4), pages 1036-1067.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:cauewp:201006. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vakiede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.