WLS Codebooks

Note: Codebooks contain frequency data from the private data release. For some variables, these differ from the frequencies in the public release. Variables that differ between the public and private versions include "(not available on public release)" as part of the variable description, or a note indicating the difference between the public and private versions.

Phone: Pensions and Retirement

SPENS - Pensions & Retirement Attitudes Module
                
OVERVIEW

In 1994, the scope of the pensions section was very narrow and focused
primarily on the respondent.  Information about coverage and benefit
eligibility age was collected for employer provided pensions and IRA/Keogh
plans; for all other retirement plans only participation was noted.  The sole
spousal question ascertained coverage through a pension plan from an employer. 
By 2005, the sample had aged into retirement making it essential to cover
pensions in considerably greater detail.  

In the 2005 wave, the pensions section covered types of plans respondents were
receiving and any benefits respondents were receiving from these plans.  If
they were not, they were asked when they would become eligible, and how much
they expected to receive. (If they were currently receiving benefits, this
information was collected in the income module.) Married respondents were
queried in more detail about the coverage that would continue after their death
for the surviving spouse.  Most of the same information was collected from the
spouse throughout the pensions section. A retirement attitudes section
followed.

All respondents were asked if they considered themselves completely, partly, or
not at all retired.  For those who had retired, the month and year of
retirement were ascertained.  Respondents who had not retired were asked when
they planned on retiring and whether their spouse would retire at that time. 
Fifty percent of the respondents (conditioned on the RETFLAG) were asked about
their current or expected post-retirement living standards, and about their
post-retirement relationship with their spouse.

Unfolding brackets followed questions asking for dollar amounts in this
section. Associated with these items are four variables (identified by the
eight characters of the variable name) detailing the information collected in
the bracketing sequence.  The character "b" is associated with a summary
variable, "u" and "l" denote the upper and lower bounds and "e" indicates the
entry point into the bracketing sequence.

During the interview, interviewers had a chance to leave notes with additional
information obtained from the respondents.  The WLS staff reviewed and
processed these notes using a standardized set of decision rules for each
section.  In many cases processing the notes resulted in changes to the coded
responses which created inconsistencies in the skip pattern of the CASES
instrument. While we put considerable effort into adjusting such discrepancies,
we could not eliminate them all. Occasionally, notes indicated problematic
cases due to the lack of specific information or, conversely, cases that
contained extra information that was important enough to retain. In such
instances we created a flag, identified by the character "f" and attached it to
the variable name, for the affected variable. 

A NOTE ON DIFFERENCES WITH GRADUATE RESPONDENT 2004 VARIABLES

In the Graduate interview, questions on the pension coverage of surviving
spouses were only asked in replicates seven through nine.  The Sibling
instrument asked them for all respondents.

BRIEF VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS

   CT101RE-CT110REE:      Current / expected pension - type, benefit receipt 
                          and eligibility (Respondent)

   CT101SP-CT110SPE:      Current / expected pension - benefit receipt and 
                          eligibility (Spouse)

   CT112RE-CT121RE:       Retirement experience / outlook on retirement

   CT122RE-CT124SP:       Pension plan details (last 3 replicates of the
survey)

Note: See Cor 978 in Appendix Q for variable creation details

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