A Pathway to Financial Stability in Retirement? Annuities and Consumers Preferences

In this thesis, we attempt to determine the nature and degree of consumers’ inhibitions to annuitization. We find potential answers under both the rational frame and what appear to be psychologically induced behavioral biases to what would otherwise be an unimpeded valuation of the product, the features that comprise it, and their covert NPV. We find that consumers’ valuative decision-making process and subsequent degree of elicited preference appear to not be fully rational and that the inhibitors we identify vary in scope and degree between demographic indicators and psychographic markers. These should remain mostly unchanged as we move to constrain our observations to these groups if consumers were evaluating the products within a fully rational frame of valuation. That said, the preliminary nature of our results require we refine our means of observation and analysis before we are able to make a more final assertion as to consumers’ degree of rational valuation versus their potential behavioral inhibitions. These improvements will permit us to better confirm the presence of those biases and more accurately determine the extent of their role, if indeed present, in the misvaluation of the annuity as an investment vehicle and its perceived reliability to smooth consumption. In full acknowledgment of the work that remains to be done, we look forward to more conclusive results.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S., Applied Economics and Management

Level thesis:degree_level

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Applied Economics and Management

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Alexander, Michael

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Turvey, Calum

• Annuity
• Annuity Puzzle
• Behavioral Economics
• Consumer Behavior
• Retirement Investing
• Wealth Management

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7298/21a7-g969

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 12073
ProQuest Publication ID: 31241750

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/115795