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Code and data files for "The Genesis of the Golden Age: Accounting for the Rise in Health and Leisure"
TLDR
In this paper, the authors developed a life cycle model featuring an optimal retirement decision in the presence of physiological aging, which can account for the evolution of age of retirement and longevity across cohorts born between 1850 and 1940 in the US.Abstract:
We develop a life cycle model featuring an optimal retirement decision in the presence of physiological aging. In modeling the aging process we draw on recent advances within the fields of biology and medicine. In the model individuals decide on optimal consumption during life, the age of retirement, and (via health investments) the timing of their death. Accordingly, "years in retirement" is fully endogenously determined. Using the model we can account for the evolution of age of retirement and longevity across cohorts born between 1850 and 1940 in the US. Our analysis indicates that 2/3 of the observed increase in longevity can be accounted for by wage growth, whereas the driver behind the observed rising age of retirement appears to have been technological change in health care. Both technology and income contribute to the rise in years in retirement, but the contribution from income is slightly greater.read more
Citations
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Killing Me Softly: The Fetal Origins Hypothesis.
Douglas Almond,Janet Currie +1 more
TL;DR: Economists have expanded on this hypothesis, investigating a broader range of fetal shocks and circumstances and have found a wealth of later-life impacts on outcomes including test scores, educational attainment, and income, along with health.
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Optimal aging and death: understanding the preston curve
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a life cycle model in which households are subject to physiological aging and the speed of the aging process and thus the time of death are endogenously determined by optimal health investments.
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The gender gap in mortality: How much is explained by behavior?
TL;DR: A novel approach to gauge the extent to which gender differences in longevity can be attributed to gender-specific preferences and health behavior and offers also an economic explanation for why the gender gap declines with rising income.
Journal ArticleDOI
The return to education in terms of wealth and health
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the extent to which the education gradient can be explained by fully rational and efficient behavior of all social strata and proposed a life-cycle model in which the loss of body functionality, which eventually leads to death, can be accelerated by unhealthy behavior and delayed through health expenditure.
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Frailty, mortality, and the demand for medical care
TL;DR: A theory of aging and longevity according to which the probability to survive at any age depends on the number of health deficits accumulated, as suggested by modern biology is proposed.
References
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THE EQUITY PREMIUM A Puzzle
Rajnish Mehra,Edward C. Prescott +1 more
TL;DR: This paper showed that an equilibrium model which is not an Arrow-Debreu economy will be the one that simultaneously rationalizes both historically observed large average equity return and the small average risk-free return.
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