10.17889/E109666
Ríos-Rull, José-Víctor
Hong, Jay H.
Replication data for: Life Insurance and Household Consumption
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2012
10.1257/aer.102.7.3701
10.1257/aer.102.7.3701
V0
Using life insurance holdings by age, sex, and marital status, we infer how individuals value consumption in different demographic stages. We estimate equivalence scales and bequest motives simultaneously within a fully specified model where agents face US demographics and
save and purchase life insurance. Our findings indicate that individuals are very caring for dependents, that economies of scale are large, that children are very costly (or yield very high marginal utility), that wives with children produce lots of home goods, and that females display habits from marriage, while men do not. These findings contrast sharply with standard equivalence scales.