Personality Traits and Economic Preparation for Retirement

Michael Hurd (), Angela Lee Duckworth, Susann Rohwedder and David R. Weir
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Angela Lee Duckworth: University of Pennsylvania
David R. Weir: Survey Research Center, University of Michigan

Working Papers from University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center

Abstract: This paper assesses the effects of personality traits on economic preparation for retirement, wealth accumulation, and consumption, among persons 66 to 69 years of age. Among the five chief personality traits of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, we focus most on conscientiousness. We find levels of adequate economic preparation for retirement ranging from 29 percent to 90 percent and that conscientiousness positively affects the proportion of persons adequately prepared for retirement, while neuroticism negatively affects it. Both consumption and wealth increase with conscientiousness but wealth increases faster, indicating that more conscientious persons save more out of retirement resources.

Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cbe, nep-dem and nep-neu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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