Jeffrey R. Brown

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the tax treatment of non-qualified immediate annuities and distributions from tax-qualified retirement plans in the United States and conclude that the current income tax treatment does not substantially alter the incentive to purchase an annuity rather than a taxable bond.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors look at the role of endowments in university finances and the interaction of spending policies, asset allocation strategies, and investment opportunities to show how universities' behavior can be modeled using economic principles.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide empirical evidence on the impact that the rise of Internet comparison shopping sites has had for the prices of life insurance in the 1990s using micro data on individual life insurance policies, finding that a 10 percent increase in the share of individuals in a group using the Internet reduces average insurance prices for the group by as much as 5 percent.

TL;DR: It is found that about half of the variation in financial distress is genetically influenced, and personality and cognitive ability are associated with financial distress through genetic and within-family pathways.

TL;DR: This paper examined individual choices between a defined contribution (DC) and a defined benefit (DB) retirement plan at a large public employer and found sensible patterns with regard to standard economic and demographic factors: the probability of choosing the DB plan decreases with the relative financial generosity of the DB plans versus the DC plan and rises with education and income.