Childhood self-control and adult pension participation

Self-control problems have been proposed as a key reason for low pension saving rates, yet evidence of this link remains scarce. We test the association between childhood self-control and adult pension participation using data from 14,223 individuals from two nationally-representative British cohorts. We find that a 1 standard deviation increase in self-control predicts a 4–5 percentage point higher probability of having a pension. Mediation analysis shows that about 50–60 percent of this association is explained by the contribution of self-control to a range of factors (e.g. education, economic status, home-ownership) which are associated with pension uptake throughout adulthood. •We test associations between childhood self-control and adult pension participation.•We use data from 14,223 individuals from two representative British cohort studies.•Childhood self-control predicts pension participation up to four decades later.•The predictive strength of self-control is similar to that of intelligence.•The association is largely explained by education, occupation, and home ownership.