Behavioral Impediments to Valuing Annuities: Complexity and Choice Bracketing

A-Tier
Journal: Review of Economics and Statistics
Year: 2021
Volume: 103
Issue: 3
Pages: 533-546

Score contribution per author:

0.804 = (α=2.01 / 5 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper examines two behavioral factors that diminish people's ability to value a lifetime income stream or annuity, drawing on a randomized experiment with about 4,000 adults in a U.S. nationally representative sample. We find that increasing the complexity of the annuity choice reduces respondents' ability to value the annuity, measured by the difference between the sell and buy values they assign to the annuity. When we limit narrow choice bracketing by inducing people to think first about how quickly or slowly to spend down assets in retirement, their ability to value an annuity increases.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:tpr:restat:v:103:y:2021:i:3:p:533-546
Journal Field
General
Author Count
5
Added to Database
2026-01-24