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Healthy, Wealthy and Working: Retirement Decisions of Older New Zealanders WP 10/02

Appendix B: Variable dictionary

Appendix Table B.1 Variable definitions of explanatory variables
Explanatory variables Description Question Notes
Working True if participant is working (full-time or part-time) Q74
Male True if participant is male Q64
Health
Physical Physical index Q1-22 Based on US methodology
Mental Mental index Q1-22 Based on US methodology
HealthAverage Average of the two health indices
Age
AgeNorm Age of participant minus 65 Q63 Some imputation based on year of birth
Age65 True if participant is 65 or more Q63
Ethnicity Default is NZ European
Māori True if participant is Māori Q66
Other True if participant is not European nor Māori Q66
YearsinNZ Number of years in New Zealand Q67b Age if NZ born, years in NZ if not NZ born
UrbanMain True if participant lives in a main urban area Q71 Default is rural
UrbanOther True if participant lives in another urban area Q71
Education Default is no education
EduSecond True if highest achieved qualification is secondary Q72 Default is no education
EduTertiary True if highest achieved qualification is tertiary Q73
Marriage Status Default is married/partnered with a non-working spouse
Separated True if participant is separated Q65
Widow True if participant is a widow/widower Q65
Never True if participant was never married Q65
MWSP True if participant is married and spouse is working Q65
Benefit
OnBenefit True if participant receives a benefit Q78
OnSuper True if participant receives NZ Super Q78
OnSuperOther True if participant receives other super Q78
Super True if participant has a super scheme Q81a,b
Dependants0 Number of financial dependants Q69 If no information provided, assume no dependants
Stopwork True if participant plans to stop working entirely on retirement Q55
Attitudes to Retirement
ResHealth True if participant considers own health as important retirement factor Q58a True if responded either “Very important” or “Moderately important” to question
ResFamHealth True if participant considers family health as important retirement factor Q58b True if responded either “Very important” or “Moderately important” to question
ResPositive True if participant considers the positive benefits of retirement important Q59a-h True if responded “Very important” or “Moderately important” on average
ResNegative True if participant considers the negative benefits of retirement important Q60a-f True if responded “Very important” or “Moderately important” on average
Income
LogIncome Log(NewIncome+1)[33]
LogWealth Log(NewTotalWealth+1)
LogOtherIncome Log(NewOtherIncome+1) Q80 Household income of people other than participant
Disease
Smoker True if the participant considers themselves a regular smoker Q22a
Adisease True if the participant has a chronic illness Q12
Appendix Table B.2 Summaries of explanatory variables
Explanatory variables Obs Type Mean Median IQR
Working 5339 Binary 0.7231958 1 1
Male 5339 Continuous 0.490898 0 1
Health
Physical 5339 Continuous 49.0238 51.4692 12.00142
Mental 5339 Continuous 53.31684 55.94527 9.410233
HealthAverage 5339 Binary 51.17032 53.17675 8.314747
Age
AgeNorm 5339 Continuous -4.01582 -5 8
Age65 5339 Binary 0.2702343 0 1
Ethnicity
Māori 5339 Binary 0.0737732 0 0
Other 5339 Binary 0.2260775 0 0
YearsinNZ 5325 Continuous 52.163 58 16
UrbanMain 5245 Binary 0.5328133 1 1
UrbanOther 5245 Binary 0.2568109 0 1
Education
EduSecond 5278 Binary 0.2431213 0 0
EduTertiary 5278 Binary 0.4648999 0 1
Marriage Status
Separated 5337 Binary 0.1209087 0 0
Widow 5337 Binary 0.0743705 0 0
Never 5337 Binary 0.0344925 0 0
MWSP 5337 Binary 0.4775014 0 1
Benefit
OnBenefit 5202 Binary 0.1048618 0 0
OnSuper 5202 Binary 0.2616152 0 1
OnSuperOther 5202 Binary 0.0748895 0 0
Super 5339 Binary 0.7437557 1 1
Dependants0 5339 Continuous 0.6758815 0 1
Stopwork 5171 Binary 0.2203502 0 0
Attitudes to Retirement
ResHealth 5339 Binary 0.606861 1 1
ResFamHealth 5339 Binary 0.5015504 1 1
ResPositive 5185 Binary 0.6453614 1 1
ResNegative 5165 Binary 0.2883647 0 1
Income
LogIncome 5054 Continuous 4.755994 4.838855 0.522388
LogWealth 5093 Continuous 2.080659 2.574455 1.556418
LogOtherIncome 5054 Continuous 3.625928 4.533688 0.9004941
Disease
Smoker 5339 Binary 0.1210137 0 0
Adisease 5339 Binary 0.5077962 1 1
Appendix Table B.3 Definitions of response variables
Name Description Question Notes
Response variables – Linear regression
TotalWealth Sum of assets Q81c Values are set to zero if some values missing
Income Household Income Q79, Q80
ELSI Economic Living Standards Index Short Form Score Q82–85
Cost Number of items that a person has taken cost measures for Q85
Retirement Age Age person plans to retire Q50 Set to missing if participant is older than given age
Response variables – Logit regression
Enough True if participant considers they have enough basic income Q84c
Response variables – Logit regression, with subgroup analysis by working/retired
StdLiving True if participant rates their material standard of living as not low Q84a Includes high, fairly high and medium
LivingChange True if participant expects their living standards to not decrease Q54 Includes increases and stays the same
EnoughIncome True if participant considers they have enough income for retirement Q56f Includes increases and stays the same
Ready to Retire True if participant has positive expectation to adjustment to retirement Q56g–i Includes increases and stays the same
Satisfied True if participant is satisfied with current material standard of living Q84b
Retirement Years True if participant thinks retirement will not be worse than working Q61e Includes better and same
Response variables – Logit regression, with subgroup analysis by male/female
Retired True if participant is retired Q74
AtWork62 True if participant likely to be retired at age 62 Q48a If responded, but age is older, set to missing
AtWork65 True if participant likely to be retired at age 65 Q48b If responded, but age is older, set to missing
Appendix Table B.4 Summaries of response variables
Name Obs Type Mean Median IQR
Response variables – Linear regression
TotalWealth 5093 Continuous 608.4677 374.3661 735.2017
Income 5054 Continuous 96852.25 69000 83960
ELSI 4774 Continuous 23.48604 25 7
Cost 5294 Continuous 1.348387 1.25 0.5
Retirement Age 3049 Continuous 66.86052 65 5
Response variables – Logit regression
Enough 5339 Binary 0.8442669 1 0
Response variables – Logit regression, with subgroup analysis by working/retired
StdLiving 5274 Binary 0.9279173 1 0
LivingChange 4979 Binary 0.5335795 1 1
EnoughIncome 5339 Binary 0.586096 1 1
Ready to Retire 5189 Binary 0.7949379 1 0
Satisfied 5288 Binary 0.7640398 1 0
Retirement Years 5149 Binary 0.8223631 1 0
Response variables – Logit regression, with subgroup analysis by male/female
Retired 5339 Binary 0.2768042 0 1
AtWork62 2919 Binary 0.5950647 1 1
AtWork65 3838 Binary 0.4852247 0 1

Notes

  • [33]The addition of 1 to these variables is to circumvent taking the logarithm of zero.
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