The Influence of Life Expectancy on Retirement Savings

This study delves into the implications of the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) on retirement savings behavior, placing particular emphasis on variations in life expectancy. Departing from the prevalent assumption of a constant or infinite lifespan in many PIH-based models, I explore the effects of a finite expected life horizon on savings behavior using data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF). The primary research objective is to discern how variations in life expectancy might lead to different retirement savings. To achieve this, I employ coarsened exact matching (CEM) as my identification strategy. This analysis advances our understanding of retirement savings behavior.