eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The objective of the study is to examine whether the field of education, personality and political values affect the decision to save for retirement. In the thesis, personality is measured in terms of an abbreviated version of the Big Five personality trait indicator. The focus is on examining both investing in pension insurance or PS agreement and otherwise saving for retirement. Furthermore, the impact of expectations that people have about their actual retirement age on the decision to save for retirement and the determinants of considering additional pension savings needed are studied.

DATA

The study employs data gathered with a tailored questionnaire about the demographics, characteristics, personality traits and expectations concerning retirement. The sample consists of 636 respondents of which 259 have education in economics. The survey was targeted to members of The Finnish Association of Business School Graduates (SEFE) and The Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers (TEK).

RESULTS

The findings give supportive evidence of significant positive impact of business education on retirement saving. When examining the effects of the Big Five personality dimensions, extraversion stands out as a significant factor positively affecting the probability of saving for retirement. In addition, some support for the negative impact of openness on retirement saving is found. Moreover, the results suggest that those who do not have pension insurance or PS account mainly due to otherwise saving for retirement tend to have higher risk tolerance, live more often in a big city and more often have wealth in stocks compared to those individuals who are saving for retirement in form of pension insurance or PS agreement.

KEYWORDS

Retirement saving, economics education, personality