Suchergebnisse

Over the past two decades, Australian households have been forced to save for their retirement through the superannuation guarantee (SG) and have also been provided with options on how to save extra through voluntary superannuation contributions. The wide-reaching nature of these policies is likely to have influenced the saving behaviour of many households. This thesis investigates contributions to superannuation in two contexts - voluntary contributions (including salary sacrifice and after-tax personal contributions), and employer contributions - using a variety of datasets (i.e., SEARS 2007, SIH 2005-10, and HILDA 2002-10). The thesis addresses three important questions: i. What is the profile of voluntary superannuation contributors (i.e., those making salary sacrifice, and/or after-tax personal contributions)? ii. Have employees responded to the tax concessions provided by the government and increased their participation in salary sacrifice of superannuation contributions? iii. Is there a substitution between employer superannuation contributions and household consumption and savings? That is, does the SG represent new savings? A number of micro-econometric techniques (i.e., bivariate probit models and fixed effect models) and policy evaluation methods, such as regression discontinuity (RD), difference in differences (DID), and 'matching' are adopted to fulfil these tasks. The results indicate the following: Firstly, that age, job attributes, and individual preferences and attitudes are good predictors of participation in voluntary contributions, while financial constraints and home ownership are strong predictors of non-participation. Secondly, that the tax concessions available for salary sacrifice contributions fail to stimulate participation, and thirdly that employer contributions have substantially increased household retirement savings, which provides support for the increase in the SG rate from 9% to 12%. This study is one of the first to investigate superannuation contribution behaviours. In doing ...

Aging is an inevitable trend for most of the countries. Compared to developed countries, China lacks a comprehensive social security system that provides a safety net for the welfare of the elderly in their retirement. Even more, Chinese seniors are about to suffer insufficient support from traditional means – family and government support. As a last resort, reverse mortgages are a good financial tool to unlock home equity and improve the living standard for elderly without them moving out. This thesis aims to assess the Chinese reverse mortgage market from different perspectives to determine whether reverse mortgages will work in Chinese market. From the demand side, the analysis shows that China's aged population, identified as the potential consumers of reverse mortgages, has a large fraction of wealth tied up in the form of housing and is in need of a method to release their home equity to finance life after retirement. From the supply side, potential providers could also benefit from reverse mortgages despite the exposure to various risks, e.g. cross over risks. Further examination of the Chinese financial and housing markets, and mortality rate helps to build the Chinese context based on which cash flows of reverse mortgage transactions are simulated. Simulation results show that reverse mortgages are beneficial to the Chinese elderly as accessing home equity allows them to double their consumption. Based on this analysis from different angles, we conclude that reverse mortgages will work in the Chinese market.