Attitudes to provision for old age
Important to FaCS' mission is an understanding Australians' financial plans for their old age, and knowledge of public support for both current and alternative policies for provision in old age. This requires systematic analysis of the public's preferences and behaviour, based on systematic survey data. Judging from earlier research, Australians have found some attractions in a wide variety of strategies for providing old age income, but current policies are among the least popular alternatives (Evans 1999). A universal age pension is more popular. But Australians remain ambivalent about superannuation with most preferring government to take a larger role, a preference that has shown no sign of change since the middle 1990s (Valenzuela and Webster 1998). Comparison with other nations in the International Survey of Economic Attitudes and the International Social Survey Programme show that older Australians are in many respects similar to older people in other European nations (and so suggest that policies and circumstances unique to Australia are not the key influences), although Australians also differ in other respects (Evans and Kelley 1999).
We extend previous research by:
- analysing specially collected new data from our 2001 IsssA survey currently in the field (key questions are listed in the Appendix); assessing changes over time by comparing the new data with exactly comparable data from previous IsssA surveys in the middle 1990s; more extensive and sophisticated statistical analysis
- gain cross-national perspective as to the ways in which Australia is similar to and in what ways different from other nations on these issues, by comparing many aspects of Australian views and preferences on provision for old age with those in two European nations (from the International Survey of Economic Attitudes) and, on a more limited range of topics, comparing Australia with several dozen nations throughout the world (from the International Social Science Survey).
This project reviews the literature from the disciplines of economics and sociology, with forays into psychology and geography, on how communities affect family life, work behaviour, social engagement, and subjective well-being. Different types of communities will be described and their evolution over time as they have responded to economic development, technological change (including in transport and communications), and changes in beliefs and ideologies. The report assesses the relation between location and poverty, with special reference to the question of whether poor neighbourhoods are merely aggregations of poor families or whether the neighbourhood per se exacerbates or ameliorates the consequences of disadvantageous individual characteristics. We also explore the development of community cultures (both positive and negative) with special reference to pro-social cultural practices such as volunteering, and assess evidence for the existence of sub-cultures of deprived communities.
Working paper arising from the project: Assessing Age Pension Options: Public Opinion in Australia 1994 - 2001 with Comparisons to Finland and Poland (pdf 500kb)