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Appendix

Appendix Table: Summary of variables used
Question number Variable No. of observations (unweighted) Variable categories Mean Median Notes
1a Respondent is a KiwiSaver member 825 (All respondents)

KiwiSaver member (1)

Non-KiwiSaver member (0)

0.386 0  
1b Respondent lives with a partner 825 (All respondents)

Partnered (1)

Non-partnered (0)

0.663 1  
1c Partner is a KiwiSaver member 505 (Partnered respondents)

KiwiSaver member (1)

Non-KiwiSaver member (0)

0.353 0  
1e Dependent children 825 (All respondents)   0.875 0 Number of dependent children aged under 18 living in the household
7a Age  825 (All respondents)   40.22 42

Age of respondent at interview date

Age bands converted to ages by taking the mid-point of the band

7b Expected retirement age 687 (Respondents aged 25 and over)   65.82 65 Age bands converted to ages by taking the mid-point of the band
7b, 7e Expected duration of retirement (years) 687 (Respondents aged 25 and over)   18.75 20  
16a Respondent's sex 825 (All respondents)

Female (1)

Male (0)

0.513 1  
16b Respondent's ethnicity 825 (All respondents)       Prioritised ethnicity
      NZ European (base) 0.613 1  
      Maori 0.118 0  
      Pacific Island 0.068 0  
      Asian 0.087 0  
      Other 0.114 0  
15a Risk tolerance 825 (All respondents)      

Risk tolerance: willingness to accept more risk for higher returns

Low (strongly disagree/disagree with statement that willing to accept more risk for higher returns

Medium (neither agree nor disagree with statement)

High (strongly agree/agree with statement)

Low 0.444 0
Medium 0.208 0
High 0.348 0
16c, 16d, 16s, 16ua, 16ub Respondent's income ($000s) 825 (All respondents)   41.74   Respondent's adjusted gross annual income based on respondent's income or  a portion of household income depending on the respective labour force status of both the respondent and their partner, as well as whether the respondent indicated they were the main income earner.
16e Owns house 825 (All respondents)

Yes (1)

No (0)

.538 1

Respondent is considered to ‘own' the house if the house is owned by respondent and/or partner or house is in a trust

 

16ta Respondent's years of schooling 825 (All respondents)   13.65 14 Highest qualification converted into years of schooling
16tb Partner's years of schooling 505 (Partnered respondents)   13.80 14 Highest qualification converted into years of schooling
16ta, 16tb Combined years of schooling 825 (All respondents)   13.68 14

For partnered respondents: average years of schooling of respondent and partner

For non-partnered respondents: respondent's years of schooling

16ua Respondent's labour force status 825 (All respondents)        
Full-time employed (base) 0.491 0
Part-time employed 0.185 0
Self-employed 0.106 0
Unemployed 0.088 0
Not in the labour force 0.129 0
16ub Partner's labour force status 505 (Partnered respondents)        
Full-time employed (base) 0.561 1
Part-time employed 0.131 0
Self-employed 0.141 0
Unemployed 0.065 0
Not in the labour force 0.063 0
16w Self-rated health status 825 (All respondents)       Some regressions combine “Fair” and “Poor” into one category due to a small number of observations
Excellent (base) 0.438 0
Very good 0.308 0
Good 0.188 0
Fair 0.046 0
Poor 0.019 0
16y Experienced at least one negative major life event since joining KS KS families (respondents who are KS members or whose partner is a KS member)

Yes (1)

No (0)

0.517 1 Experienced at least one of the events listed in q16y, excluding the positive event “A boost to your income”
16q Respondent's occupation 825 (All respondents)        
Professionals (base) 0.225 0
Managers 0.129 0
Technicians and trade workers 0.128 0
Community and personal service workers 0.100 0
Clerical and administrative workers 0.103 0
Sales workers 0.066 0
Machinery operators and drivers 0.053 0
Labourers 0.087 0
Other 0.108 0
16r Partner's occupation 505 (Partnered respondents)        
Professionals (base) 0.263 0
Managers 0.130 0
Technicians and trade workers 0.174 0
Community and personal service workers 0.063 0
Clerical and administrative workers 0.101 0
Sales workers 0.069 0
Machinery operators and drivers 0.038 0
Labourers 0.088 0
Other 0.074 0
16fi-16p Net wealth ($000s) 825 (All respondents)   29.13 9.4

Assets minus liabilities

Banded data converted to numbers by taking mid-point of bands.

House valuations that were not current were  adjusted to 2010Q1 using national house price index

Trust assets were measured as the outstanding amount of the loan to the trust

12a, 12b Expect NZS to be main source 825 (All respondents) Yes (1)

No (0)
0.315 0 Expects NZS to be main source of income in retirement
7f Has the respondent thought about financial planning for retirement? 687 (Respondents aged 25+) Yes - a lot or a fair amount (1)

No - a little or not at all (0)
0.504 1  
2b Opt in 474 (KiwiSaver members) Opted in - through employer or provider (1)

Auto-enrolled or enrolled by someone else (0)
0.578 1 Method of enrolment for current KiwiSaver members
1a, 1j Opt out 526 (KiwiSaver members and non-members who opted out) Opted out (1)

Current member of KS (0)
0.191 0 Did respondent actively opt out of KS?
2a When respondent joined KS 474 (KiwiSaver members) 1 July 2009 onwards (1)

1 July 2007-30 June 2009 (0)
0.102 0  
13a If hadn't joined KS, would you have set aside money specifically for retirement? 521 (KiwiSaver families that is respondents who are KS members or whose partner is a KS member) Likely - very or quite likely (1)

Unlikely - not that or not at all likely (0)
0.618 1  
13b If weren't a KS member, how much of your contributions would you have saved or used to reduce debt? 521 (KiwiSaver families, that is, respondents who are KS members or whose partner is a KS member)   6.39 7

How much, out of 10, would have saved or used to reduce other debt (versus being spent on daily outgoings or “other”)

The higher this number, the lower the amount of additional savings (i.e. the higher the degree of substitution)

7c Expect to have a standard of living in retirement that is the same or better than pre-retirement? 564 (those 25 years old and over and able to specify an expected retirement age) Yes -stay the same, increase somewhat or increase a lot (1)

No - decrease a lot or somewhat (0)
0.726 1  
7g-7j, 7r-7v Size of excess (+) or shortfall (-) in expected retirement income with respect to amount needed to meet basic needs  ($) 376 (Respondents aged 25 and over who had thought at least a little about financial planning for retirement and could provide expected and required retirement incomes)   5660 3120

Expected and needed income given as annual, weekly or lump-sum in current dollars figure. 

Weekly amounts converted to annual by multiplying by 52

Lump-sum converted to annual amount using annuity due formula with 2% rate of return

Question was answered for a couple or individual, depending on whether the respondent lived with a partner and whether a partnered-respondent preferred to think of him/herself as an individual or not.

Data for a couple was adjusted to make it comparable to that of an individual by multiplying the couple's amount by 0.60 (which is consistent with the difference between NZS married couple and single rates

7k-7n, 7r-7v Size of excess (+) or shortfall (-) in expected retirement income with respect to amount needed to be comfortable ($) 377 (Respondents aged 25 and over who had thought at least a little about financial planning for retirement and could provide expected and required retirement incomes)   -4912 0

Expected and needed income given as annual, weekly or lump-sum in current dollars figure. 

Weekly amounts converted to annual by multiplying by 52

Lump-sum converted to annual amount using annuity due formula with 2% rate of return

Note:

Missing values and responses of “don't know” or “refused” were imputed. The following variables were subject to imputation: KiwiSaver membership status of respondent's partner, respondent's labour force status, partner's labour force status, whether NZS is expected to be the main source of retirement income, level of risk tolerance, respondent's highest qualification, partner's highest qualification, asset and liability components of net wealth, income, whether or not the respondent has thought about financial planning for retirement, expected retirement age and duration of retirement, expected standard of living in retirement, method of joining KiwiSaver, opting out of KiwiSaver when joined KiwiSaver, respondent experienced at least major negative life event since joining KiwiSaver, what would have been done with the money if hadn't joined KS. Only a small number of imputed values were needed for each of these variables, with the exception of income. Thus, in accordance with Harrell's guidelines (Harrell Jr 2001), a simple hotdeck imputation method was employed for all variables other than income. Hotdeck imputation was used as it is simple, preserves the distributional characteristics of the variable, and performs nearly as well as more sophisticated imputation approaches (Roth 1994). Income had a larger proportion of the sample with missing values (7.8% of the sample for non-partnered individuals and 9.5% of the sample for partnered individuals). Therefore, missing income data was imputed using the multivariate imputation method available in STATA software.

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