@article{bbd46490dc304560bcc2d259ad2f4be1,
title = "Does Home Equity Affect Decisions on Long-Term Care Insurance Purchases? Evidence From the United States",
abstract = "The low uptake of private long-term care insurance (LTCI) by the elderly in the United States, despite visible risks, has left economists puzzled. Prior studies have hypothesized that home equity can be a substitute for LTCI and hence may partly explain the low uptake. We test this hypothesis empirically. We utilize exogenous variation in house prices at the level of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) as an instrument for home equity for individuals residing in that MSA and data from the Health and Retirement Study. In the most robust specifications, we find no evidence that the elderly change their decision on LTCI based on variation in their home equity, and even specifications requiring stronger identification assumptions imply only small effect magnitudes. Home equity as a substitute for LTCI does not appear to be a major contributing factor to low LTCI take up.",
author = "Hirth, {Richard A.} and Yubraj Acharya and Levy, {Helen G.} and Langa, {Kenneth M.}",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge funding support from the University of Michigan{\textquoteright}s M-Cubed program. The sponsor had no role in the conduct of the research and placed no restrictions on the publication of findings. We would also like to thank Tamara Konetzka for comments on an earlier draft of this article and Ryan McCammon for helping obtain geocode data from the Health and Retirement Study. The Health and Retirement Study is funded by the National Institute on Aging (U01 AG009740) and performed at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. This study was exempt from ethics review by the University{\textquoteright}s Institutional Review Board (HUM00079346). Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funding support received from the University of Michigan{\textquoteright}s M-Cubed program. Funding Information: We acknowledge funding support from the University of Michigan?s M-Cubed program. The sponsor had no role in the conduct of the research and placed no restrictions on the publication of findings. We would also like to thank Tamara Konetzka for comments on an earlier draft of this article and Ryan McCammon for helping obtain geocode data from the Health and Retirement Study. The Health and Retirement Study is funded by the National Institute on Aging (U01 AG009740) and performed at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. This study was exempt from ethics review by the University?s Institutional Review Board (HUM00079346). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Funding support received from the University of Michigan?s M-Cubed program. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019.",
year = "2019",
month = jul,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1177/0164027519830078",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "41",
pages = "602--628",
journal = "Research on Aging",
issn = "0164-0275",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "6",
}