Skip to main content

Biological (and Other) Ages

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Retirement Income Recipes in R

Part of the book series: Use R! ((USE R))

  • 1011 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines the implications of mortality heterogeneity, that is the dispersion of longevity prospects within the population. It begins by discussing the extended Gompertz–Makeham model, as well as the compensation law of mortality, linking moments of the remaining lifetime random variable. It then introduces non-chronological measures of age, such as biological age and (especially) longevity risk-adjusted age to illustrate its dispersion. This chapter illustrates how true age can differ around the world and even within countries, based on wealth and income. The main computational implication of this chapter is that the human longevity random variable T x, depends on (much) more than just chronological age x. Such heterogeneity must be accounted for in any intelligent drawdown methodology or pensionization scheme.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Barbi, E., Lagona, F., Marsili, M., Vaupel, J. W., & Wachter, K. W. (2018). The plateau of human mortality: Demography of longevity pioneers. Science, 360, 1459–1461.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Chetty, R., Stepner, M., Abraham, S., Lin, S., Scuderi, B., Turner, N., et al. (2016). The association between income and life expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014. Journal of the American Medical Association, 315(16), 1750–1766.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Deaton, A. (2016). On death and money: History, facts and explanations. Journal of the American Medical Association, 315(16), 1703–1705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Gavrilov, L. A., & Gavrilova, N. S. (1991). The biology of lifespan: A quantitative approach. Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Gavrilov, L. A., & Gavrilova, N. S. (2001). The reliability theory of aging and longevity. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 213(4), 527–545.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Goldman, D. P., & Orszag, P. R. (2014). The growing gap in life expectancy: Using the future elderly model to estimate implications for social security and medicare. American Economic Review, 104(5), 230–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gompertz, B. (1825). On the nature of the function expressive of the law of human mortality and on a new mode of determining the value of life contingencies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 115, 513–583.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Holzman, R., Alonso-Garcia, J., Labit-Hardy, H., & Villegas, A. M. (2017). NDC schemes and heterogeneity in longevity: Proposals for redesign. ARC Centre of excellence in population ageing research, working Paper No. 2017/18.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Huang, H., Milevsky, M. A., & Salisbury, T. S. (2017). Retirement spending and biological age. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 84, 58–76.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Jylhava, J., Pederson, N. L., & Hagg, S. (2017). Biological age predictors. EBioMedicine, 10, 29–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Meyricke, R., & Sherris, M. (2013). The determinants of mortality heterogeneity and implications for pricing annuities. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 53, 379–387.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Milligan, K., & Schirle, T. (2018). The evolution of longevity: Evidence from Canada. National bureau of economic research, working paper # 24929.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Milevsky, M. A. (2020). Swimming with wealth sharks: Longevity, volatility and the value of risk pooling. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 19(2), 217–246. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474747219000040

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Milevsky, M. A. (2020). Calibrating Gompertz in reverse: What is your longevity risk-adjusted global age? Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 92, 147–161.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Peltzman, S. (2009). Mortality inequality. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(4), 175–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Richards, S. J. (2020). A Hermite-spline model of post-retirement mortality. Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, 2020(2), 110–127.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Sanderson, W. C., & Scherbov, S. (2019). Prospective longevity: A new vision for population aging. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Shoven J. B., & Goda, G. S. (2008). Adjusting government policies for age inflation. National bureau of economic research, working paper #13476.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Su, S., & Sherris, M. (2012). Heterogeneity of Australian population mortality and implications for a viable life annuity market. Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 51, 322–332.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Ye, Z., & Post, T. (2020). What age do you feel? Subjective age identity and economic behaviors. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 173, 322–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Milevsky, M.A. (2020). Biological (and Other) Ages. In: Retirement Income Recipes in R. Use R!. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51434-1_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics