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An empirical analysis of the annuity rate in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2007

ROBERTO ROCHA ,
MARCO MORALES  and
CRAIG THORBURN
ROBERTO ROCHA*
Affiliation:
World Bank
MARCO MORALES
Affiliation:
Diego Portales University
CRAIG THORBURN
Affiliation:
World Bank
*
*Communications should be addressed to Roberto Rocha: [email protected]
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Summary

Empirical analyses of annuities markets have been limited to a few developed countries and restricted by data limitations. Chile provides excellent conditions for research on annuities due to the depth of its market and the availability of data. The paper utilizes a panel of life insurance company data to examine econometrically the main determinants of the annuity rate, defined as the internal rate of return on annuities. The results indicate that the annuity rate is determined by the risk-free interest rate, the share of privately issued higher yield securities in the portfolio of providers, as a proxy for the spread over the risk-free rate, the leverage of providers, the level of broker's commissions, the market share of individual providers, the level of the premium, and the degree of market competition. The results also show that efforts to improve market transparency produced structural shifts in the parameters of the annuity rate equation. The results are consistent with separate research on money's worth ratios, and indicate the need to develop appropriate financial instruments, allowing providers to hedge their risks while extracting higher returns, and also to ensure competition and transparency in annuities markets, in order to ensure good outcomes for annuitants.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Pension Economics & Finance , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 95 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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