Who Lacks Pension Knowledge, Why and Does it Matter?: Evidence From Swedish Retirement Savers
2022 (English)In: Public Finance Review, ISSN 1091-1421, E-ISSN 1552-7530, Vol. 50, no 4, p. 379-435Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Recent pension reforms have shifted a larger responsibility towards savers. Individuals therefore need better knowledge of the rules and incentives embedded in the pension system to adequately save and prepare for retirement. In this paper, we use a novel Swedish survey matched with high-quality administrative data to show that many lack, and feel that they lack, such pension-specific knowledge. We also show that the most economically vulnerable groups know the least. Linking pension knowledge to behavior, we find that knowing less is associated with lower preparedness for retirement, even after controlling for financial literacy and subjective knowledge. Moreover, a large majority state the complexity of the pension system, or that they have planned to learn more about pensions but that it just hasn't happened, as reasons for why they do not have sufficient knowledge.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2022. Vol. 50, no 4, p. 379-435
Keywords [en]
bounded rationality, financial literacy, pension knowledge, saving, pension system JEL Classifications, H55, D80, D83
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-58327DOI: 10.1177/10911421221109061ISI: 000836332400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85142236381Local ID: HOA;;827142OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-58327DiVA, id: diva2:1690328
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2013-2482, 2017-00092Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)2022-08-252022-08-252022-12-01Bibliographically approved