Lifetime consumption and investment: Retirement and constrained borrowing

  • Philip H. Dybvig
  • , Hong Liu

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    143 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Retirement flexibility and inability to borrow against future labor income can significantly affect optimal consumption and investment. With voluntary retirement, there exists an optimal wealth-to-wage ratio threshold for retirement and human capital correlates negatively with the stock market even when wages have zero or slightly positive market risk exposure. Consequently, investors optimally invest more in the stock market than without retirement flexibility. Both consumption and portfolio choice jump at the endogenous retirement date. The inability to borrow limits hedging and reduces the value of labor income, the wealth-to-wage ratio threshold for retirement, and the stock investment.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)885-907
    Number of pages23
    JournalJournal of Economic Theory
    Volume145
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    StatePublished - May 2010

    Keywords

    • Consumption
    • Investment
    • Mandatory retirement
    • Voluntary retirement

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