Public Opinion about the Pension Reform, 2018

12 Jan 2018

The goal of the research was to study the attitude of Georgian population regarding new pension reforms; To determine how the new pension system meets social-political, value, and state positions of the citizens.

Based on the research's goal, a quantitative survey has been conducted which aims to:

• Study the attitude of Georgian population related to basic parameters of new pension system ( introducing accumulated pension scheme, participating in it, management, use of accumulated pension, initiating solidarity fund etc.)
• Assessment of pension system reform by the different social-demographic characteristics ( age, income, employment status) in allocated groups;

The research object is the population of Georgia (Tbilisi and all regions), with age of 18 years and above.

The election lists (number of voters) and the statistics department data (demographic data) were used for the sampling framework.

The final size of the sampling was determined by 1000 respondents. This size of sampling is enough to receive representational data across the following target groups:

• Population of Georgia
• Age groups (18–34 years.; 35–54 years.; 55 years old and above)
• Subgroups allotted by employee status
• Subgroups allotted by income status

 

A structured questionnaire was used as a research instrument, that mainly encompassed closed and semi-closed questions.

The questionnaire covered the following issues/themes

• Awareness regarding pension amount and pension age;  
• Self-assessment of pension system awareness.
• Attitude regarding existing pension system
• Awareness regarding the reform projects of the pension system
• Change of existing pension system
• Attitude to the accumulative pension fund
• Attitude to the solidarity fund
• Attitude regarding alternative mechanisms of pension provision
• Change of pension age under the pension fund conditions and etc.

After the research instrument was developed, it was piloted. Based on piloting results, the shortcomings in the questionnaire were corrected. The data was collected using face-to-face interviews method, using tablet computers.

Data processing has been done on the basis of Social Sciences Statistical Program (SPSS). Initially, the data was cleaned and weighed, then data processing was carried out using univariate and bivariate methods, such as a single-dimensional frequency distribution, central trends measurements, correlation analysis, scatter diagram and more.

As a result of analyzing the data, the final analytical report was prepared.