Appendix Table A1.
Variable Descriptions
| A. Financial Behaviors (questions detailed in the 2016 HRS Module)11 |
| Help w/ financial mgmt. (0/1) is a binary variable equal to one if R got help with money management in past year (Item v106=1), 0 else. |
| Types of Financial Advice |
| Help w/ invst (0/1) is a binary variable equal to one if R got help with investing stocks, bonds or mutual funds, 0 else. |
| Help from profl/other non-family advisors (0/1) (v108=4, 5, 6, 7, 8; advisor_help3) =1 if R gets help from professional financial advisors or other nonfamily member; 0 else |
| Free’ profl help (0/1) (v112=7; free_advice1) = 1 if R gets help for free from professional advisor; 0 else conditional on v108=4, 5, 6 (receiving professional financial advice) |
| Reasons for Not Seeking Advice |
| No money help: Overconfidence (0/1) is a binary variable equal to one if R did not receive financial advice because he can do financial management on his own, 0 else. |
| No money help: Distrust (0/1) is a binary variable equal to one if R did not receive financial advice due to no trust in financial advisors, 0 else. |
| No money help: DK whom to ask (0/1) is a binary variable equal to one if R did not financial advice because he knows no one to ask, 0 else. |
| B. Control variables (from HRS Core) |
| FinLit score: Sum of number of correct answers to four financial literacy questions. |
| Age: R age in years |
| Male: binary variable equal to one if R male, 0 else. |
| White: binary variable equal to one if R white, 0 else. |
| Hispanic: binary variable equal to one if R Hispanic, 0 else. |
| Married: binary variable equal to one if R married, 0 else. |
| Education: number of years of education |
| Good health: binary variable equal to one R reports health status excellent/good, 0 else. |
| Non-housing wealth: net value of non-housing financial wealth (stock, saving, CDs, bonds, and other saving less debt) in 2014 $100,000s. |
| Housing wealth: net value of housing (value of 1ry residence less mortgages and home loans) in 2014 $100,000s. |
| Live near to children: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Do any of your children who do not live with you live within 10 miles of you? (PE012)” |
| Frequent contact with children: binary variable equal to one if R’s answer to “In the past 12 months, how often have you or your wife/husband/partner or your late husband/wife/partner had contact with children, either in person or by phone, mail, or e-mail. (PE033)” more than median. |
| Own stock: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Aside from anything you have already told me about, do you or your husband/wife/partner have any shares of stock or stock mutual funds? (PQ316)?” |
| Has DC: binary variable equal to one if R said DC to “Detailed type of pension plan from current job (R13PTYP1-4) |
| Has DB: binary variable equal to one if R said DB to “Detailed type of pension plan from current job (R13PTYP1-4)” |
| Covered by fed. Govt HI: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Covered by federal government health insurance program (R13HIGOV)” |
| Covered by priv. HI: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Whether employer-provided health plan covers retirees (R13COVRT)” |
| Covered by ER HI: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Covered by other health insurance (R13HIOTHP)” |
| Has life insurance: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Covered by life insurance (R13LIFEIN)” |
| Has long-term insurance: binary variable equal to one if R said yes to “Covered by long-term care insurance (R13HILTC)” |
| High complexity: binary variable equal to one if R holds stock/stock mutual fund (PQ316) or bond/bond mutual fund (PQ330). |
| C. Instrumental variables |
| Economic class: A binary variable equal to one if R had an economics/finance class in school, 0 else. |
Note: R refers to HRS Respondent