Volume 35, Number 1 (Winter) 2000
Attanasio, Orazio P., and Hilary W. Hoynes. 2000.
"Differential Mortality and Wealth Accumulation." Journal of Human
Resources 35(1): 29.
In this paper, we examine the role played by differential mortality in
estimates of lifecycle wealth profiles. Our study makes three contributions. First, we show that
the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) provides reliable data on mortality as
compared to the US life table data. Second, we provide estimates of the relation ship between
mortality and wealth and show strong evidence of differential mortality. Lastly, and most
importantly, we show that the differences in mortality by wealth are large enough to substantially
affect the estimated wealth age profiles.
Orazio Attanasio is a professor of economics at University College London. Hilary Hoynes is an assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Berkley. This research was supported by the Institute for Industrial Relations, the Institute for Business and Economic Research, and the National Institute on Aging. Computing support was provided by the Econometrics Laboratory at UC Berkeley. The authors are thankful to Dan McFadden, Paul Rand, Frank Wolak, and seminar participants at Berkley, Dartmouth, Stanford, Wisconsin, National Bureau of Economic Research and IFS for useful comments. Harish Chand and Cindy Gustafson provided excellent research assistance. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning April 2000 through March 2003 from Hilary Hoynes at hilary@econ.berkeley.edu.
© 2002 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X