In this paper we show that it may be optimal for individuals to educate more and decrease future labor supply (choose earlier retirement) when life expectancy increases. This result reconciles the findings of Hazan [Hazan, M., 2009. Longevity and Lifetime Labor Supply: Evidence and Implications....

Utilizing pre-intervention variation in the mortality from various infectious diseases, along with the time variation occurring from medical breakthroughs in the late 1940s and the 1950s, this paper tests how a large positive shock to life expectancy influenced inequalities in human capital...

Building on the idea that religious communities provide mutual insurance against some idiosyncratic risks, we argue that religious membership is more valuable in societies exposed to greater common risk. In our empirical analysis we exploit rainfall risk as a source of common economic risk in...