Who contributes to RRSPs?
Boris Palameta Registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) are one of the most important financial assets of Canadians 1 (Statistics Canada, 2001a). Previous studies have established that RRSP participation rates are heavily influenced by income, but other potentially important factors—such as sex, age, and membership in an employer-sponsored pension plan—have not been investigated thoroughly. For example, although men on average participate at higher rates than women, they also typically have higher incomes. Hence, they may be more likely than women to contribute to an RRSP simply because they have a greater capacity to do so. Indeed, at equal income levels, women are more likely to contribute (Statistics Canada, 1999). It is useful to distinguish between capacity to contribute and incentive to contribute—one does not necessarily imply the other. For instance, members of an employer-sponsored pension plan—identified by the presence of a pension adjustment (PA) on their tax forms—are a
