In: GPR: Zeitschrift für das Privatrecht der Europäischen Union ; European Union private law review ; revuè de droit privé de l'Union européenne, Band 19, Heft 6, S. 283-286
Research background Because of the convergence of demographic, political, and economic trends, retirement has become a significant stage of human life, which currently requires thoughtful and careful planning. Therefore, social pension schemes – a type of system under which the benefits are being provided – and women's individual saving decisions should give consideration to the fact that it is necessary to accumulate additional funds which should be sufficient for several decades after retirement.
Purpose Social pension schemes are widely discussed in all European countries, and in this context we can pose the following question: What is it exactly that makes women save for retirement? This paper has two objectives: to identify the factors that encourage women to save and to measure these factors and develop a model which shows correlations.
Research methodology A questionnaire survey was used for collecting the primary data. Subsequently, the analysis is based on 4 indexes created for the purposes of this paper. Then, the indexes were estimated on the basis of the unidimensional two-parameter IRT model, rho and CR coefficients, and multiple-group logistic regression analysis.
Novelty The conducted calculations lead to the conclusion that regardless of age, several factors are statistically significant for the whole analysed group, e.g. a place of residence. This is the first paper that shows determinants important for women when it comes to saving for retirement.
Research background: The following article concerns initial trust, i.e. trust which is formed during the first contact with a customer. Trust is, of course, an interdisciplinary category and as such it is defined in various ways; however, it is most often emphasized that it entails a positive attitude towards another person and a conviction that the person will meet our expectations. In relation to a particular individual, trust is connected with their identity, that is, with the attributes that distinguish them from other people, such as gender, skin color, way of dressing, or age.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to determine which qualities inspire trust in the case of financial services.
Research methodology: Research was conducted using the paradigm of a mixed approach and combines the use of a projection technique and multilevel regression. The respondents assessed their perceived initial trust towards 100 salespersons shown to them in photographs depicting financial service encounters. The multilevel regression model (mixed regression) and conjoint analysis using the conjoint library of the R program and the STATA and Mplus programs were used to analyze the obtained nested data.
Results: The obtained results revealed that among the main qualities inspiring initial trust are appropriate appearance (a gray or blue outfit is desired), white skin color (people were less trustful towards other races), owning a cell phone as a symbol of professionalism, and also a black-and-white background. Gender is also significant, since the research showed that men inspired more trust than women. On the other hand, age is less important than we thought.
Novelty: Trust testing using projection techniques is rare in economic articles. The authors did not find similar works, so the novelty will be both the method used and the area of research.