Title: Explaining diversities in age-specific life expectancies and values of life saving
Subtitle: a numerical analysis
Description: "Little attempt has been made so far to quantify the extent to which individual willingness to spend on life protection may account for the observed trends and diversities in age-specific life expectancies across individuals and over time.  We address these issues via calibrated simulations of a dynamic, life-cycle model of life protection in which life's end is a stochastic event, age-specific mortality risks are endogenous variables, and spending on life protection is set jointly with related insurance options: life insurance as well as annuities.  A unique feature of our model is that it links age-specific mortality risks and implicit private values-of-life-saving (VLS) as "dual variables", and estimates them jointly.  It also offers new insights about the concept and measurement of VLS.  Life protection is estimated to have a non-negligible impact on age-specific life expectancies.  It can account for significant portions of observed inequalities in life expectancies across population groups and over time, as well as for a wide range of empirical estimates of VLS produced via the conventional "willingness to pay" approach"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Subjects: Mathematical models, Health behavior, Life expectancy, Self-care, Health