Many economists and policy-makers argue that households do not save enough to maintain an adequate standard of living during retirement. However, there is no consensus on the answer to the underlying question what this standard should be, despite the fact that it is crucial for the design of saving incentives and pension reforms. We address this question with a survey, individually tailored to each respondent’s financial situation, conducted both in the U.S. and the Netherlands. Key findings are that adequate levels of retirement spending exceed 70 percent of working life spending, and minimum acceptable replacement rates depend strongly on income. Key words: Life cycle preferences, pension reform, replacement rates, retirement saving.
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Paper provided by Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim in its series MEA discussion paper series with number
08171.
Length: Date of creation: 11 Nov 2008 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:mea:meawpa:08171
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Find related papers by JEL classification: D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
John Beshears & James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2008.
"How are Preferences Revealed?,"
NBER Working Papers
13976, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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