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Espérances de vie subjectives et comportement de consommation et d’épargne des vieilles personnes .
Author(s) -
Salm Martin
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2010.01605.x
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , life expectancy , longevity , health and retirement study , expectancy theory , economics , psychology , gerontology , demographic economics , environmental health , medicine , social psychology , population , sociology , social science
Life expectancy is an important factor that individuals have to take into account for saving and consumption choices. The life‐cycle model of consumption and saving behaviour predicts that consumption growth should decrease with higher mortality rates. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis based on data about subjective longevity expectations from the Health and Retirement Study merged with detailed consumption data from two waves of the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey. This study finds that an increase in subjective mortality by 1% corresponds to an annual decrease in consumption of non‐durable goods of around 1.8%.