Adam Smith Business School

Dr Tomáš Jagelka, University of Bonn

“Living Large or Long: Preference Estimates from Completed-Life Stories” (with Amitabh Chandra, Erzo F.P. Luttmer, and Joshua Schwartzstein)
Wednesday, 18 September 2024. 15:00-16:30
Room 281, Adam Smith Business School

Abstract

The value people attach to longevity increases is an important input to policy decisions on health care, the environment, and safety regulations. This value is typically estimated based on compensating differentials for taking on very small risks of death. We instead estimate this value by letting people choose between completed life stories in which life-time income and longevity is randomized. We present a battery of tests to gauge whether these hypothetical choices measure underlying preferences. The benefit of our method is that it does not require people to correctly evaluate very small probabilities, yields estimates of the distribution of preferences for longevity in a representative population, and allows for a characterization of heterogeneity in preferences by respondent characteristics.

Bio

Tomáš Jagelka is an applied microeconometrician at the University of Bonn and a recurrent visitor to the economics department at Dartmouth College. His current research focuses on advancing our understanding of preferences, skills, and other personal attributes, which are fundamental drivers of success in various life domains. His research on has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Political Economy and recognized by the French Economic Association (Best PhD in economics in France, 2019), International Association for Applied Econometrics (Best paper presented by a PhD student, 2019), and the Slovak Economic Association (Best paper authored by economist up to 35 years of age, 2020).

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First published: 11 September 2024