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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1426366

Does subjective life expectancy matter in purchasing life insurance among middle-aged and elderly? Evidence from China

Provisionally accepted
Xuejiao Chen Xuejiao Chen *Yunhan Guo Yunhan Guo *Chang Lu Chang Lu *Yizhen Wang Yizhen Wang *Hanshuo Wen Hanshuo Wen *
  • Minzu University of China, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Population-wide increase in life expectancy is a source of aggregate longevity risk.Life insurance is a natural instrument to manage the risk. Previous studies used chronological age to examine the relationship between aging and life insurance purchase, which ignored the impact of subjective life expectancy-the real perception of remaining time. Therefore, this study aims to fill the lack in this area and to explore in depth the relationship between subjective life expectancy and purchasing life insurance among middle-aged and elderly at micro perspective. This paper utilizes data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) over a period of four years to construct both Probit and Tobit models. The findings reveal that subjective life expectancy positively affects the likelihood of participation and the extent of life insurance among the middle-aged and elderly population in China. IV model estimation results show good robustness of the results. Meanwhile, there is also heterogeneity in the effect with respect to gender, hukou, education and wealth. The findings provide new perspective to explain the subjective motivation of purchasing life insurance in China.

    Keywords: subjective life expectancy, life insurance participation, Chinese middle-aged and elderly, China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), Probit model, tobit model

    Received: 03 May 2024; Accepted: 29 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Guo, Lu, Wang and Wen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xuejiao Chen, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
    Yunhan Guo, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
    Chang Lu, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
    Yizhen Wang, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
    Hanshuo Wen, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.