1. Objectifs

Intentions :
In this study, authors explore «how often financially heterogamous spouses describe their management of retirement savings as joint and redistributive.» (p. 580)

Questions/Hypothèses :
Authors «suggest that spouses with an income differential sometimes pool or otherwise equalise their retirement savings as a redistributive gesture.» (p. 581)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«[D]ata are from a survey fielded in Québec in 2015 as part of a project titled: Unions et désunions conjugales au Québec: regards croisés sur les pratiques et les représentations sociales et juridiques de la vie à deux. […] The target population included individuals aged between twenty-five and fifty who were in a co-residential couple domiciled in Québec. The questionnaire was fielded by Bureau des Interviewers Professionnels (BIP), a survey firm, by phone (N=1,199) and internet (N=2,047). […] Because [authors] are interested in financially heterogamous couples, [they] restricted the original sample to those couples alone.» (p. 586) Then, their final sample is constituted of 1 933 respondents.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

Results show «that 26 per cent of respondents in [their] sample do not save for retirement, 46 per cent say they and their partner save individually, and 28 per cent declare that they and their partner strive to balance retirement savings across spouses. Those figures mean that, among respondents who are financially preparing for retirement, 38 per cent employ a redistributive strategy, while 62 per cent use an individualised one. The relative risk of an independent versus a redistributive strategy is thus 1.64, meaning that the probability of an independent strategy is 64 per cent greater than the probability of a redistributive one in [their] sample. [Moreover,] results fail to find evidence that the responding partner’s age is associated with saving individually versus balancing retirement savings. However, age heterogamy has a significant effect in [the authors’] model. As expected, partners with an age difference exhibit a higher relative risk of saving individually versus balancing retirement savings, compared to those of the same age: the relative risk of saving individually is 48 per cent higher for age heterogamous couples compared to couples in the same age range. Regarding the issue of specialisation, [...] findings indicate that couples with one partner not in the labour force have a significantly lower relative risk of using an independent strategy compared to dual-earner couples […].» (p. 589)