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The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of consumption tax on savings behavior especially on the people who are close to their retirement.

The authors analyze the response in spending and retirement saving using a difference-in-differences regression methodology. The authors use the year since the Public Provident Fund (PPF) enrollment date for each individual as a random assignment to identify the service tax policy's causal impact. Therefore, this variable is a continuous variable defined as an individual's age until the end of the restrictions when people can withdraw money from their retirement savings account PPF without any penalty. The treatment variable is the service tax shock (increase in service tax) that happened effective 1st April 2015.

The authors find a significant effect of a change in the service tax rate on individuals' spending and PPF saving behavior. On average, individuals lower their consumption by about 14% and increase their PPF savings by 16% in response to the increase in the service tax rate. The authors find substantial heterogeneity in effect across different types of individuals. The effect is more pronounced for people closer to their retirement and needy people (defined as individuals with low traditional savings account balances).

The authors studied the effect of consumption tax on one category of savings (PPF) only. There are other savings instruments available in India. The data for those were not available to us.

This paper not only throws light on the consumption and savings behaviour of the individuals, but will also help the policy maker for framing appropriate fiscal policy.

Using a unique and proprietary data from a large bank in India, the authors analyze the effect of a tax policy change on households' consumption and retirement savings behavior. The authors find that households reduce their consumption by 14% and increase their voluntary retirement savings (Public Provident Fund aka PPF) by 16% in response to an increase in the service tax policy. Individuals close to their retirement age (55 years of age and above) and without any withdrawal restrictions from their PPF account tend to reduce their expenditures more and save more. Individuals with financial constraints and withdrawal restrictions do not reduce their expenditures significantly. To the best of the authors’ knowledge no study was done on this.

This research aims to examine the decision-making process involved in saving for retirement and compare it with decision-making processes regarding other financial products (such as loans and savings plans) as well as real products (such as a car or a home).

This research is based on the distribution of 107 questionnaires. The questionnaire is composed of two parts: questions examining and focusing on the individual’s decision-making process and questions regarding socioeconomic factors. The average level of risk tolerance is calculated for each respondent with respect to the first four chapters. (These chapters include buying a car or a home, opening a savings plan and taking a loan). Afterward, the consistency (rationality) of the respondents is examined with regard to their decision-making concerning retirement savings plans. Then, an econometric model is used to further test the consistency of the respondents.

The results suggest that the level of risk tolerance associated with a retirement savings plan is consistent with that associated with the other financial products, but not with the real products. Majority of the respondents demonstrate high risk tolerance with respect to retirement savings, and their decision-making process is similar to a random thinking process. The level of deliberation and information-gathering regarding retirement savings is the lowest when compared with the other financial and real products examined in this paper. Majority of the respondents are less risk-tolerant toward the other financial and real products.

In this research, the authors examine how different individuals with different characteristics get different decisions about their personal retirement savings. The authors also examine these decisions’ deviation from the rational model, and compare it with decision-making processes regarding other financial products as well as real products.

Research to date has reported ambiguous results on the influence of tax concessions on retirement savings decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of tax concessions on private retirement investment decisions by analyzing actual retirement decision processes and the rationales behind these decisions in‐depth.

Qualitative semi‐structured interviews on actual retirement savings decisions were conducted with private investors (17) and their respective bank advisors (5). Decision‐making rationales are analysed by means of semantic and causal coding of verbal data as well as by highlighting the complexities of decision processes represented in individual investment narratives.

Results indicate that taxes do not matter much, neither during the decision to join a private retirement plan, nor when choosing a specific investment product. Financial planning for retirement consists of saving disposable income instead of the required savings premium and choosing a secure type of investment which yields more than a savings account. Savers do not base their decisions on calculating and comparing rates of return or tax benefits. Instead, comparatively unqualified relatives as well as bank advisors and the desire for trust and security are of major relevance.

The generalization of results is limited in so far as they refer to a relatively small interview sample. The study shall thus prompt further research that takes the decision‐making context and the interrelation between several context factors systematically into account.

The study is of value in that it highlights the difficulties private investors' experience when making actual – rather than hypothetical – retirement savings decisions and the rationales behind seemingly “imperfect” decisions. It shows that retirement savings decisions are heavily linked with the social decision‐making context. These results are closely linked to the recent debate on “responsibilization”, critical perspectives on the tendency of states to hold individuals increasingly accountable for aspects of market governance and social security.

Although saving for retirement is critical, many people are reluctant to contribute money now in anticipation of a future event, namely their retirement. This study aims to investigate the interaction effect between message frame and message appeal on individual preparedness for retirement, specifically in terms of an individual’s willingness to contribute to retirement savings.

Across three studies, the authors show that message frames with a gain-orientation are more persuasive when self-oriented rather than oriented towards socially distant others. In Study 1, the authors use a 2 (gain-loss message frame) × 3 (self, close-other, distant-other message appeal) experimental design with ad copy manipulating the scenarios. In Study 2, the authors replicate and extend Study 1 to validate the findings. In Study 3, the authors overlay life-stage to determine how consumers differ in terms of their willingness to contribute to retirement.

Across the studies the authors find that message frame and message appeal influence consumer preparedness for retirement. The authors investigate these effects in terms of willingness to contribute to retirement savings (Studies 1–3) as well as satisfaction with retirement savings, anticipated retirement enjoyment, positive emotions and negative emotions (Studies 1 and 2).

While a substantive amount of research has been devoted to retirement planning, gaps remain as to the efficacy of communication message strategies on influencing retirement preparedness. This research seeks to contribute towards this literature stream by uncovering the ways in which individuals can be encouraged to contribute towards retirement planning.

This study analyzes financial preparation for retirement of American men and women, using the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The purpose of this paper is to research the adequacy of retirement preparation for men and women in their positive savings periods.

This research uses probit analysis and multiple regression models to observe the statistical significance of several independent variables on retirement savings. The specific variables of analysis are socio-demographic, work related, financial assets, and attitudes about saving and investing for a sub-sample of individuals aged 35–45, 46–59, and 60–67.

For retirement preparation, income is a significant factor for both men and women aged 35–45. Excellent health is significant for both men and women aged 46–59, whereas the number of weeks worked per year was significant for men and women aged 60–67. In addition, health has significant positive effects on the amount of financial wealth invested in stocks while age has significant negative effects.

This research uses data from the 2013 SCF to analyze factors affecting retirement preparation for men and women in their positive savings periods. The findings from this study can aid policy makers in designing retirement saving programs that can effectively incentivize individuals for adequately prepare for retirement.

Previous studies have focused on the effect of factors such as age, health, marital status, work history, education, income, family/household composition, and occupation on retirement savings over an individual’s lifetime. This study focuses specifically on retirement preparation or adequacy for men and women who are in their positive savings periods.

In this chapter our objective was to gain an understanding of what affects Maltese individuals’ behaviors when it comes to retirement planning. Given that longevity is on the increase, state pension income is limited (and most probably unsustainable over the long term) and that many individuals expect to be able to enjoy a comfortable retirement, it sets out to determine which macro- and micro-environmental factors are likely to encourage positive behavior or otherwise.

We did this by consulting and analyzing existing literature in chapter 8 of this book and designing an online survey which was specifically created to capture qualitative data about public sentiment and behaviors with respect to retirement planning.

The study identifies a general sense of confusion in relation to financial concepts related to retirement. In line with other countries’ findings, the prevalence of myopia, procrastination and inertia has also been observed through the research undertaken.

Through established behavioral finance theories and literature, as well as actual European practical examples, the research explores the best ways of “nudging” people into recognizing the importance of acting and making the right long-term financial decisions, to their own benefit and to that of society.

Notwithstanding, that overall savings of the Maltese are around the average established for Europe, the study found that savings tend to be shorter term, and therefore insignificant when considering the actual requirements for the desired quality of life at retirement. The research showed how, as with other countries, behavioral biases have been limiting people from acting or making the right choices.

Of the most prominent of behaviors, procrastination, myopia, and inertia were observed. In the local market, these seemed to stem from a sense of disorientation as to the meaning of certain concepts, how to initiate the process and which actions to take. In fact, although many did not admit it outright, respondents showed low levels of confidence in their abilities, and avoid acting out of fear that it may not be the right choice. At the same time, they would try to rationalize their lack of action by the premise that things would sort themselves out, although this is typically labeled as overconfidence, it is likely to be an attempt to feel better about their stance on the matter.

Becoming self-employed has appeal to both genders. For many women, balancing work and family is a key motivator. However, businesses owned and operated by women are often very small, with limited turnover. This potentially can have disastrous consequences when these women come to retire, unless a solid retirement savings strategy has been considered. The purpose of this paper is to outline many of the issues and implications of a lack of research in this area.

Data were collected from 201 small business owners via a convenience sample derived from various databases. The survey was completed on-line and analysed using SPSS.

Many self-employed women in Australia have neither enough savings for their retirement, or an actual retirement plan. This is exacerbated by the lack of regulation requiring mandatory contributions into a superannuation (personal pension) fund by small business owners, unlike pay as you go employees, whose employers must contribute a certain about on their behalf.

Middle-to-older aged women are the biggest cohort of homeless people in Australia. This is likely to grow as self-employed Baby Boomers stop working and find they do not have sufficient personal financial resources to fund their retirement.

Whereas there is much written about gender and small business ownership, as well as retirement and savings planning, these two areas have not been researched before in Australia. Yet it is an issue for the majority of small business owners, particularly women.

The purpose of this paper is to study the driving forces of both the decision to participate in individual pension plans and the amount of money allocated to such plans. Moreover, this paper evaluates the potential role that income plays, which has not previously been considered in depth in the financial literature.

Based on a sample of the Spanish population over the period 2008–2015, this paper estimates probit and tobit models, using 165,791 observations. The driving forces of private retirement savings comprise demographic, financial and socio-economic characteristics.

This paper confirms the impact of socio-demographic and economic variables on participation and monetary contributions to pension plans. It also confirms that income plays a non-negligible role. Moreover, empirical evidence reveals that the effect of gender is related to the income stratum to which the individual belongs.

Retirement planning plays a key role in retirees’ future income and several countries have emphasised the importance of private individual savings to supplement the minimum provided by public pension schemes. The previous literature has concluded that those who plan their retirement end their working lives with three times the wealth of non-planners. Consequently, analysis of whether people are saving enough for their retirement can contribute to avoiding future wealth inequalities among retirees. Spain is one of the countries with the greatest inequality in income distribution, so this issue is of even greater interest.

American workers at nearly every level of the income spectrum are not and often cannot to save properly to be secure in retirement. Addressing this challenge will require a comprehensive policy discussion by both federal and state policymakers. Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are the primary form of employee ownership, and for reasons explored in this report, companies organized as S corporations are especially likely to be fully ESOP-owned. The purpose of the paper is to explore the role played by employee ownership in retirement security overall and across wage and age groups.

The findings described in this report are derived from a survey of privately held S corporation ESOPs. The report compares these findings to nationally representative survey data. The online survey, conducted between January and March 2018, received responses from 39 companies that supplied the median and average account balances of a total of 61,020 plan participants. It breaks new ground by presenting retirement account balances by wage and age categories (e.g. 20,000 lower-wage workers and 8,000 employees nearing retirement).

ESOP participants represented in this survey have more than twice the average total retirement balance of Americans nationally: $170,326 vs $80,339. This is not just a function of higher wage ESOP employees driving the average up. ESOP employees making less than $25,000 a year also have on average more than double the retirement savings ($55,526) compared to similar workers nationally ($22,447). Nearly all of the respondent companies (97 percent) offer at least one other retirement plan in addition to the ESOP. By contrast, 32 percent of all workers in the US workforce as a whole do not have access to any retirement benefits at work, and 49 percent of all workers are not participating in the plan that is available to them. Additionally, these S corporation ESOP companies provide an array of benefits at levels solidly higher than firms overall where comparison data exist. Certainly, these benefits make their own contribution to retirement security because workers are less likely to have to dip into savings for critical investments or expenses, such as tuition, to advance their career or unexpected medical expenses. Among the surveyed S ESOPs, workers nearing retirement have on average a median account balance of $147,522 in their ESOP plus $98,974 in a non-ESOP plan(s). By contrast, more than one-third (35 percent) of all workers nearing retirement have neither retirement savings nor a defined benefit pension. This percentage rises to 50 percent among low-income workers in this age bracket. As such, national data place the median account balance of all US workers aged 55–64 years at zero. Even among workers who have retirement accounts, the median balance nationally is $100,000. A typical millennial worker (25–34 years old) at a surveyed S ESOP company has a median ESOP account balance of $22,588 and a median balance of $11,239 in a non-ESOP account. In contrast, the median savings of US millennials is zero. Among the surveyed S ESOPs, lower-wage employees ($10.00–$12.85 per hour) typically have median account balances in their ESOP of $4,381 and in a non- ESOP plan of $2,149. In contrast, nationally, 56 percent of workers in this category do not have access to any retirement benefits at work. This translates into a median savings for this group of zero. Finally, ESOPs are clearly associated with reduced turnover. Respondent companies report quit and separation rates that are more than two times lower than national rates.

This is the first such study of its kind.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of financial literacy on savings and retirement planning in Ghana.

The study uses primary data collected from a sample of formal sector workers and probit models, to assess how financial literacy affects retirement planning.

The empirical analysis of this study shows that most individuals lack knowledge of basic concepts of finance. This study finds that only about 27% of respondents were able to correctly answer three simple questions on inflation, interest compounding and risk diversification. Generally, the young, the old, women, low-income earners and the less educated perform worst on financial literacy measures. Also, financial literacy has a positive significant impact on the probability of saving for retirement.

The low level of financial literacy observed should be of concern to policymakers. Evidently, concrete measures are required to strengthen the knowledge of particularly those in the vulnerable groups such as the young, the old, women, low-income earners and the less educated, in order to enable them to prepare adequately for retirement.

The study contributes to the scant financial literacy and financial behavior literature in developing countries such as Ghana.