This paper studies the life cycle consumption-investment-insurance problem of a family. The wage earner faces the risk of a health shock that significantly increases his probability of dying. The family can buy term life insurance with realistic features. In particular, the available contracts...

Large, unpredictable and not fully insurable health-care costs represent a source of background risk that might deter households' financial risk taking. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study and fixed-effects estimation, we test whether universal health insurance, like Medicare...

We study optimal portfolio choice and labour market participation in a continuous time setting in which agents face health shocks, medical expenses, and random lifetimes. We explore the implications of different forms of health coverage and study their impact on dynamic portfolios and labour...