Good health is not something we can buy. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account.

We focus on automatic strategies to optimize life cycle savings and investment. Classical optimal savings theory establishes that, given the level of risk aversion, a saver would keep the same relative amount invested in risky assets at any given time. We show that, when optimizing lifecycle investment, performance and risk assessment have to take into account the investor's risk aversion and t...

Since July 1, 2007, New Zealanders have had a new option for their retirement savings―KiwiSaver―a type of subsidized, defined contribution retirement savings plan offered by private-sector providers. New labor force entrants in permanent positions who are aged 18 or older are automatically enrolled in a KiwiSaver plan, but are able to opt out of the plan if they wish. Also, all individuals youn...

Dilip Mookherjee, Debraj Ray and Kunal Sengupta are thankfully acknowledged. 2 Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of financial intermediation on precautionary savings and incentives to invest in a setting where the credit market is subject to informational asymmetry due to moral hazard. We show that precautionary savings are the outcome of financial contracts that offe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether participation in a worksite wellness program differs by age and sex and is associated with frequency and average cost of medical claims. METHODS Healthcare cost data were available for school district employees during the academic years ending in 2009 through 2014. The wellness program was available in the later 3 years. The frequency and the average cost of medi...

Since the early nineties, the Dutch tax system allows for a tax-favored form of risk free savings through employer-sponsored savings plans (ESSPs). Under some conditions and up to a certain amount, the contributions to this plan are tax-deductible, and the returns as well as the withdrawals are tax-free. This makes these plans extremely attractive, with real after-tax returns by far exceeding t...

Since the early nineties, the Dutch tax system allows for a tax-favored form of risk free savings through employer-sponsored savings plans (ESSPs). Under some conditions and up to a certain amount, the contributions to this plan are tax-deductible, and the returns as well as the withdrawals are tax-free. This makes these plans extremely attractive, with real after-tax returns by far exceeding t...