{"title":"A life insurance model with asymmetric time preferences","authors":"Joakim Alderborn","doi":"10.1016/j.insmatheco.2024.07.005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We build a life insurance model in the tradition of <span><span>Richard (1975)</span></span> and <span><span>Pliska and Ye (2007)</span></span>. Two agents purchase life insurance by continuously paying two premiums. At the random time of death of an agent, the life insurance payment is added to the household wealth to be used by the other agent. We allow for the agents to discount future utilities at different rates, which implies that the household has inconsistent time preferences. To solve the model, we employ the equilibrium of <span><span>Ekeland and Lazrak (2010)</span></span>, and we derive a new dynamic programming equation which is designed to find this equilibrium for our model. The most important contribution of the paper is to combine the issue of inconsistent time preferences with the presence of several agents. We also investigate the sensitivity of the behaviors of the agents to the parameters of the model by using numeric analysis. We find, among other things, that while the purchase of life insurance of one agent increases in her own discount rate, it decreases in the discount rate of the other agent.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":54974,"journal":{"name":"Insurance Mathematics & Economics","volume":"119 ","pages":"Pages 17-31"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Insurance Mathematics & Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167668724000829","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We build a life insurance model in the tradition of Richard (1975) and Pliska and Ye (2007). Two agents purchase life insurance by continuously paying two premiums. At the random time of death of an agent, the life insurance payment is added to the household wealth to be used by the other agent. We allow for the agents to discount future utilities at different rates, which implies that the household has inconsistent time preferences. To solve the model, we employ the equilibrium of Ekeland and Lazrak (2010), and we derive a new dynamic programming equation which is designed to find this equilibrium for our model. The most important contribution of the paper is to combine the issue of inconsistent time preferences with the presence of several agents. We also investigate the sensitivity of the behaviors of the agents to the parameters of the model by using numeric analysis. We find, among other things, that while the purchase of life insurance of one agent increases in her own discount rate, it decreases in the discount rate of the other agent.
期刊介绍:
Insurance: Mathematics and Economics publishes leading research spanning all fields of actuarial science research. It appears six times per year and is the largest journal in actuarial science research around the world.
Insurance: Mathematics and Economics is an international academic journal that aims to strengthen the communication between individuals and groups who develop and apply research results in actuarial science. The journal feels a particular obligation to facilitate closer cooperation between those who conduct research in insurance mathematics and quantitative insurance economics, and practicing actuaries who are interested in the implementation of the results. To this purpose, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics publishes high-quality articles of broad international interest, concerned with either the theory of insurance mathematics and quantitative insurance economics or the inventive application of it, including empirical or experimental results. Articles that combine several of these aspects are particularly considered.