Are Pension Savings sufficient? Perceptions and Expectations of American and Dutch Workers

Hendrik P. van Dalen (), K. Henkens and D.A. Hershey
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D.A. Hershey: Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research

No 2008-58, Discussion Paper from Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research

Abstract: Are retirement savings sufficient to finance a good pension income? This highly uncertain and subjective dimension of life cycle decision making is assessed among married working individuals using an identical survey distributed to Dutch and American workers in 2007. Despite marked differences in expected and needed pension replacement rates - where the Dutch replacement rates are systematically higher than the American rates - the perceived savings adequacy is more or less the same across Dutch and American workers. Moreover, individuals? perceived savings adequacy was found to be influenced by the three groups of factors: institutional forces, social forces and psychological dispositions. This study shows that differences in the mind set of American workers plays a far larger role in explaining differences in perceptions of savings adequacy than it does in the Netherlands.

JEL-codes: D14 D91 G23 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eec and nep-lab
Date: 2008
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