PRIVATE PENSION SAVINGS: GENDER, MARITAL STATUS AND WEALTH - EVIDENCE FROM SWEDEN IN 2002

Abstract

During the last decades, people in Sweden have changed their savings behavior towards long-term savings such as tax-deferred pension accounts. This indicates that the tax-deferrable pension savings will play a larger roll as a source of income for retired people in the future. To improve the understanding of the saving for retirement in general and the policy design for tax-deferred pension saving in particular, it is important to learn more about the people currently saving in the tax deferrable pension accounts. This paper investigates the attributes of the people beginning to save in tax-deferred pension accounts. The emphasis is on gender, marital status, and wealth. The theoretical framework is the life-cycle hypothesis. The results suggest that women are more likely to pension save and save a greater amount than men. Also, the results indicate that married and single people differ in their savings behaviour. The saving decisions of married people seem to be made at the household level and not on individual level. Further, the public old-age pension wealth has a positive impact on the probability of beginning to pension save and on the size of the pension saved amount for all individuals.