How Deep Is the Annuity Market Participation Puzzle?
利用英国微观数据，分析了自愿年金市场需求的实证决定因素，发现财富、预期寿命和教育促进参与，而其他养老金收入和遗赠动机抑制参与。生命周期模型能解释这些因素，表明有限参与并非谜题。
Using U.K. microeconomic data, we analyze the empirical determinants of voluntary annuity market demand. We find that annuity market participation increases with financial wealth, life expectancy and education and decreases with other pension income and a possible bequest motive for surviving spouses. We then show that these empirically-motivated determinants of annuity market participation have the same, quantitatively important, e¤ects in a life-cycle model of annuity demand, saving and portfolio choice. Moreover, reasonable preference parameters predict annuity demand levels comparable to the data, thereby questioning the conventional wisdom that limited annuity market participation is a puzzle to be explained.