Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 76 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-59).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 99 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-60).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

This dissertation presents three essays on retirement and savings behaviour. It relies on secondary data from British national surveys to empirically address how workers prepare and adapt to the economic circumstances of later life. Chapter 1 analyses the effectiveness of providing workers with the opportunity to join workplace pension schemes to stimulate pension savings. It estimates the potential opt-in rate among employees who haven’t been offered a pension plan by an employer, had they been offered the opportunity to join a scheme. Governmental policies enforcing pension plan provision at every workplace could generate a major impact on aggregate participation rates. This potential success does not seem to be conditional on the existence of mechanisms imposed by law concerning the way workers are enrolled. Chapter 2 examines the effect of workplace pension schemes provision and participation on other individual financial savings, such as personal pension plans and financial assets. It exploits the variability in workplace pension scheme provision and membership induced by the employer’s payroll size as an identification strategy. No evidence is found that providing employees with access to workplace pension schemes would make them less likely to save through non-pension financial instruments. These results support the enforcement of the universal provision of workplace pension schemes as a national policy to improve financial preparation for retirement. Chapter 3 builds on the literature of the economic role of home production of goods and services at retirement. The literature usually restricts the explanation of retirees’ heterogeneous attitudes towards home production to gender differences or social norms related to couples’ division of labour. The present study provides novel evidence that non-cognitive skills in the form of personality traits explain the heterogeneous reallocation of time and consumption that occurs during a transition from the labour market to retirement.

BackgroundThe prompt seeking of medical care after the onset of symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndromes (ACS)/acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associated with the receipt of coronary reperfusion therapy, and effective cardiac medications in patients with an ACS/AMI and is crucial to reducing mortality and the risk of serious clinical complications in these patients. Despite declines in important hospital complications and short-term death rates in patients hospitalized with an ACS/AMI, several patient groups remain at increased risk for these adverse outcomes, including women and the elderly. However, recent trends in age and sex differences in extent of pre-hospital delay, hospital management practices, and short-term outcomes associated with ACS/AMI remain unexplored. The objectives of this study were to examine the overall magnitude, and changing trends therein, of age and sex differences in duration of pre-hospital delay (1986-2005), hospital management practices (1999-2007), and short-terms outcomes (1975-2005) in patients hospitalized with ACS/AMI. MethodsData from 13,663 residents of the Worcester, MA, metropolitan area hospitalized at all greater Worcester medical centers for AMI 15 biennial periods between 1975 and 2005 (Worcester Heart Attack Study), and from 50,096 patients hospitalized with an ACS in 106 medical centers in 14 countries participating in the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) between 2000 and 2007 were used for this investigation. Results In comparison with men years, patients in other age-sex strata exhibited significantly longer pre-hospital delay, with the exception of women < 65 years; had a significantly lower odds of receiving aspirin, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), beta blockers, statins, and undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) surgery or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and were significantly more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, cardiogenic shock, heart failure, and to die during hospitalization and in the first 30 days after admission. There was a significant interaction between age and sex in relation to the use of several medications and the development of several of these outcomes; in patients Conclusions Our results suggest that the elderly were more likely to experience longer prehospital delay, were less likely to be treated with evidence-based treatments during hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, and were more likely to develop adverse outcomes compared to younger persons. Younger women were less likely to be treated with effective treatments and were more likely to develop adverse outcomes compared with younger men while there was no sex difference in these outcomes. Interventions targeted at older patients, in particular, are needed to encourage these high-risk patients to seek medical care promptly to maximize the benefits of currently available treatment modalities. More targeted treatment approaches during hospitalization for ACS/AMI for younger women and older patients are needed to improve their hospital prognosis.