Background Characteristics

Abstract

This is the third chapter of Part III ‘Prevalence of Economic Vulnerability Among Swiss Pensioners’ that presents a descriptive analysis of our sample population. It provides the background for more complex multivariate analyses by systematically exploring the relationship between a series of potential explanatory variables and the three dependent measures of economic vulnerability: Monthly income below CHF 2’400.- (Objective Measure/Income Poverty), Difficulties in making ends meet with monthly income (Self-Assessed Measure/Economic Strain) and Worries about not having enough money for current expenses (Perceived Measure/Economic Stress). This chapter focuses on the model component ‘Background Characteristics’ which refers to features of a more permanent nature that could function as ‘risk of exposure’ in the vulnerability framework. For this reason, the list of variables is fairly diverse, encompassing demographic and social characteristics as well as personality traits.