TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ehrlich,Isaac
AU  - Yin,Yong
TI  - Explaining Diversities in Age-Specific Life Expectancies and Values of Life Saving: A Numerical Analysis
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10759
PY  - 2004
Y2  - September 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10759
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10759.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Isaac Ehrlich
415 Fronczak Hall
State University of New York at Buffalo
and Center for Human Capital
Box 601520
Buffalo, NY 14260-1520
Tel: 716/645-2121ext 421
Fax: 716/645- 2127
E-Mail: mgtehrl@buffalo.edu

Yong Yin
415 Fronczak Hall
State University of New York at Buffalo
and Center for Human Capital 
Box 601520
Buffalo, NY 14260
E-Mail: yyin@buffalo.edu
AB  - 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 agespecific 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.
ER  -