Education and factors affecting the business of voluntary pension funds in Serbia

Sažetak

This paper analyses the influence of economic, demographic and behavioural-economic factors on the business parameters of Voluntary Pension Funds (VPFs) in Serbia. VPFs are insurance companies that are gaining importance through lifetime extension. There are seven VPFs in Serbia, with a total of 220,714 users. The economic indicators of the research include: GDP/Cap, wages, poverty and unemployment rate. Demographic indicators include education level and gender distribution. For behavioural factors, we rely on Richard Thaler’s model (2012), according to which people pay larger sums of money into pension funds as they approach retirement, rather than doing so in the years when they are at their best productive and financial shape. PCA and SEM techniques were used in the research. After performing PCA, the BE&E, G&W and W&P scores were isolated. By looking at the β coefficients, the effects of BE&E and W&P on the amount of funds were statistically significant. When BE&E jumps by one point, the amount of funds increases by 8017.920. If  W&P increases by one point, the amount of funds jumps by 3461.143. The most significant  positive factor loadings that form BE&E are behavioral factor, tertiary education and GDP. The management of VPFs can influence the elimination of nudging and raising the level of education by investing in financial training, and by providing student scholarships. W&P leads to positive growth of the amount of funds over average monthly earnings, but since they depend on the overall business environment in the country, management has no direct influence.