Access to Information and Retirement Decision: The Swedish case : Who are well-informed and did the information affect their retirement plans?

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of information and its impact on the retirement decision. Two aspects of information were examined; the first displays the characteristics which informed individuals, and the second shows how certain information affected their decision to leave the labour market or to continue working after the age of 65. Our results confirm that being male and having a higher average labour income increases the probability of being well-informed about the pension system. Conversely, being a female, having a lower education or few skills, suffering from poor health, working in the public sector and being self-employed all have a negative impact on the likelihood of being well-informed. In regards to the effect of information on the retirement decision, the empirical results show us that a majority of the well-informed individuals will leave the labour market before the retirement age of 65. Generally speaking, those who remain employed will not take information into account when it comes to retirement planning, since majority of them have other motives than pure economic considerations.