Deferred annuities with gender-neutral pricing: Benefitting most women without adversely affecting too many men

Abstract

Many countries emphasize gender equality and ban gender-based annuity pricing, leading to more heterogeneous health characteristics and market inefficiency. Governments may respond by offering deferred annuities when annuitants' health characteristics are more similar at an earlier age. The two combined policies benefit most female annuitants without adversely affecting too many male annuitants, contrasting to the well-known result that imposing gender-neutral pricing benefits all women but adversely affects all men, when only immediate annuities are available. Within each gender group, these two policy interventions benefit annuitants with average health, but may adversely affect those on either end.