Financial literacy and retirement preparation in the Netherlands

We present new evidence on financial literacy and retirement preparation in the Netherlands based on two surveys conducted before and after the onset of the financial crisis. We document that while financial knowledge did not increase from 2005 to 2010, in 2010 significantly more individuals report having thought about their retirement. Using information on financial conditions and financial knowledge of relatives, we find a positive causal effect of financial literacy on retirement preparation. Employing the panel feature of our dataset, we show that the effect of financial knowledge on retirement planning is bound to be positive.