I am very happy that my paper When should retirees tap their home equity? has now been accepted for publication in the Journal of Banking & Finance.
This paper analyzes a household’s optimal demand for a reverse mortgage. We study a rich life-cycle model that can explain the low demand for reverse mortgages as observed in US data. In line with empirical evidence, we find that the demand for reverse mortgages is particularly pronounced for cash-poor, house-rich retirees, and households with a strong bequest motive and low pension income. We analyze the optimal response of a household that is confronted with a health shock or financial disaster. If an agent suffers from an unexpected health shock, she reduces the risky portfolio share and is more likely to enter a reverse mortgage. If there is a large drop in the stock market, she keeps the risky portfolio share almost constant by buying additional shares of stock.
Many thanks to my co-authors Holger Kraft and André Meyer-Wehmann for the joint effort!
