TY - JOUR T1 - Worker preferences, spousal coordination, and participation in an employer-sponsored pension plan JF - Research on Aging Y1 - 2004 A1 - Kim Shuey KW - Adult children KW - Consumption and Savings KW - Pensions AB - Recent changes in the pension environment, such as the growth of defined contribution plans, place more responsibility on individuals for the accumulation of retirement resources and provide workers with an increasing array of pension-related choices and decisions. This study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine two instances where workers face such decisions - participation in an offered defined contribution plan and participation in a supplemental pension plan. The author examines the relationship between two largely unexplored predictors of pension participation - psychological motivators of saving and the influence of spouse's behavior. Individual preferences for planning and risk and measures of spouse's pension behavior are included in probit models predicting individual pension participation. Results reveal gender differences in the association between preferences and behavior and differences in the primary versus supplemental decision. They also suggest that spouses coordinate pension decisions and behave similarly within structural constraints. PB - 26 VL - 26 IS - 3 U4 - Pensions/Saving/Spouse ER - TY - THES T1 - Couples Approaching Retirement: The Organization of Pension Behavior within the Family Y1 - 2001 A1 - Kim Shuey KW - Adult children KW - Demographics KW - End of life decisions KW - Pensions KW - Retirement Planning and Satisfaction AB - In this analysis I used Wave 1 of the Health and Retirement Study to explore how the utilization of pension opportunities intersects with family context. I examined how decisions about retirement savings are shaped by family structure and family dynamics. Structural explanations of pension opportunities take non-market factors such as family responsibilities into account only to the extent that they shape location in the labor market. However, like other decisions related to household resources and savings, many decisions regarding employer pensions occur within the context of the family and it is likely that they are influenced by the resources and behavior of other family members. This research is an initial attempt to incorporate spouse characteristics and household dynamics into explanations of pension behavior. The analyses show the importance of considering the interdependence of decision making among couple members when conducting analyses of financial behavior and pension participation. Results suggest that women, at least this cohort of women, are more influenced by their spouses than are men. Working women tended to coordinate pension decisions with their husbands in a manner that was consistent with or complimentary to the behavior of their husbands. This points to the importance of attending to the influence of the spouse on individual behavior, as well as gender differences in this influence, and the way in which power dynamics within the household filter the translation of individual preferences into individual behavior. The analyses also demonstrate the necessity of accounting for differences in individual preferences and "states of mind" in pension research, since preferences for planning and risk influenced pension participation. In addition, the analyses indicate that there are substantive reasons for making an analytic distinction between primary and supplemental participation. Results also show that the potential selection effects involved in modeling pension participation did not bias the estimates. Although the theoretical reasons for performing these corrections remain, little was gained analytically. In contrast, the analyses demonstrated the importance of acknowledging and correcting for the non-independence of observations when examining individual-level behavior with a sample that contains both members of a couple. PB - The Florida State University U4 - Middle Aged Adults JO - Couples Approaching Retirement: The Organization of Pension Behavior within the Family ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Pension decisions in a changing economy: gender, structure, and choice. JF - J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci Y1 - 2000 A1 - Melissa A. Hardy A1 - Kim Shuey KW - Age Factors KW - Choice Behavior KW - Decision making KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Models, Economic KW - Pensions KW - United States AB -

OBJECTIVES: As responsibility for financial security in retirement becomes more individualized, understanding the distribution and determinants of savings behavior grows in importance. Employed men and women often gain access to their pension assets when they change jobs. In this study gender differences in pre-retirement access to and disposition of accumulated pension assets are examined.

METHODS: The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study to model pension participation, disposition of pension assets, and use of cash settlements derived from a pension plan in a previous job. Logit models provided estimates of gender differences in access to pensions and the preservation of pension funds for retirement.

RESULTS: Women were less likely to have participated in employer-sponsored pension plans; more likely to cash out accumulated pension assets when they changed jobs; and, when job changes occurred at relatively young ages, equally likely to spend the settlement. However, by their late 40s, women were more likely to save the settlement, a net gender difference that increased with age at which the settlement was received.

DISCUSSION: The structure of employment compensation continues to place women at a disadvantage. Gender differences in earnings and fringe benefits not only affect current financial status, but also cast a shadow over future financial security. Although the gender gap in pension coverage has been reduced, women with pensions have access to lower benefits and less in accumulated assets. As these continuing deficits are addressed, enhancing women's tendency to save pension assets for retirement can help them build financial security.

PB - 55B VL - 55 IS - 5 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10985298?dopt=Abstract U4 - Age Factors/Choice Behavior/Decision Making/Female/Human/Middle Age/Models, Economic/Pensions/United States ER -