Saving for Old Age
Countries around the world face a retirement crisis brought on by aging populations, declining birthrates, and fiscal shortfalls. As a result, policy makers increasingly seek to understand retirement savings patterns, a crucial component of the saf...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/06/26428607/saving-old-age http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24532 |
| Summary: | Countries around the world face a
retirement crisis brought on by aging populations, declining
birthrates, and fiscal shortfalls. As a result, policy
makers increasingly seek to understand retirement savings
patterns, a crucial component of the safety net for the
elderly. Drawing on the 2014 Global Findex database, which
provides individual-level data on the use of financial
products in more than 140 countries, this paper examines how
adults save for old age. It finds that about 25 percent of
adults worldwide save for old age, with rates exceeding 35
percent in high-income Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development economies and the East Asia and
Pacific region. On average, men are slightly more likely
than women to save for this purpose, but the gender gap is
deeper in developing countries. Worldwide, saving for old
age is more common among older adults, more educated adults,
and adults who own accounts. Adults in countries with
English legal origin, and with high savings rates, are also
more likely to save for old age. The paper also finds that
measures to increase trust in the financial system, such as
the safety net/moral hazard index based on deposit
insurance, lead to higher rates of saving for old age.
Finally, the paper finds little evidence of substitution
between pension system provisions and contribution rates
with saving for old age. |
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