Life Insurance Ownership Among Seniors-A Perspective of Spousal Quality Among the Elderly

Life insurance is commonly used to protect against the loss of future human capital earnings. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) Leave Behind survey, this study investigates the impact that the quality of a marriage has on the demand for life insurance ownership. The results suggest that spousal relationship quality is a strong and dominating factor in life insurance ownership among the elderly. Our findings indicate that elderly individuals are more motivated to provide financial protection to their spouse when the quality level of their marriage is "good "- in addition to the influence of other factors predicted by classic economic theories. We perform several robustness tests and find consistent results. [Key words: relationship quality, life insurance ownership, household risk management]