One of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is the relationship between social distancing measures and increased use of the Internet, electronic services, and digital devices. How does digital inequality in the context of social distancing affect the COVID-19 pandemic? In this article, we assessed the impact of existing digital inequality as the cause of the changing number of cases of COVID-19 in the EU. We assessed the relationship between the increase in COVID-19 cases between the first and second waves in 2020 and the presence of digital inequality in Internet use and digital skills across sociodemographic factors: gender, age, education, generation, marital status, and place of residence. We applied the ordinary least squares method to data from the 2019 Eurobarometer survey, which reveals the digital maturity of EU citizens, and from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control in 2020, which tracks COVID-19 cases. We found that the strongest relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and digital inequality is related to Internet use rather than digital skills. The digital divide by age, between generations, and the geographic digital divide in Internet use show a strong positive relationship with the changing incidence of COVID-19 cases. The gender digital gap shows a negative relationship for both Internet use and digital skills, indicating the social role of women in households in the pandemic, caring for children and the elderly. A negative relation was also found in digital inequality by marital status for digital skills, which reflects preferences regarding living alone during the pandemic. These findings prove the importance of universal access to the Internet for older people and those living in rural areas. The results can contribute to policies aimed at reducing digital inequalities in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As pension benefits from statutory public schemes become less generous, and many countries face pension-savings crises, the willingness to participate in supplementary retirement saving instruments becomes crucial for sustainable financial well-being. The main objective of this article is to present how trust and financial literacy influence the choice of sustainable auto-enrolment pension scheme as a private and supplementary pension savings. The study highlighted factors influencing participation in auto-enrollment and private supplementary pension savings. The study focuses mainly on financial literacy and trust. We used the CAWI method with 857 interviews in Poland—the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to introduce an auto-enrolment pension system. Our study uses multivariable data-mining tools, and several regression models were applied. We used Logistic Regression (LR), Multivariate Linear Regression (MLR), and Factor Analysis of Mixed Data (FAMD) to support the LR analysis. We propose four regression models. Our findings present that: 1. The lower the consumer’s knowledge level, the more their decisions are based on trust. 2. Trust in the state, rather than trust in financial institutions, plays a crucial role for people with low financial literacy, which is a critical factor in choosing the auto-enrolment option for pension savings. 3. Men had higher odds of auto-enrolment pension saving than women. 4. Employees of economic universities and academics had higher odds of participating in capital pension plans than those of general universities and non-academics. Our findings can signal to governments and policymakers about factors influencing the choice of auto-enrolment supplementary retirement savings. These findings strengthen the role of sustainable economic education.

Research background: The role of supplementary pension systems in providing adequate income in old-age is increasing significantly. They are frequently analysed, but rather in terms of architecture, product forms, assets under management or tax incentives than in terms of their efficiency, costliness or readability for individuals. Purpose of the article: The first aim of this paper is to evaluate individual retirement products in Poland regarding their linguistic readability and transparency, investment efficiency and costliness. Moreover, we examine whether there is any correlation between the analyzed characteristics of contracts that would suggest an intentional strategy by financial institutions to hide low efficiency and high costs. The second aim of the article is to assess which individual retirement products are similar to each other and which are significantly different. The research covers two types of individual retirement products (IKE and IKZE) offered at the beginning of 2017. Methods: We used the ?Jasnopis? linguistic analysis tool to assess the difficulty level of the language used in the contracts and we conducted desk-research to analyse their transparency. We indicated the costliness and efficiency of the products by calculating the 5-year cost ratios and real average 5-year rates of return. To examine the relations between the characteristics of pension contracts, we used the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and then verified its significance with a non-parametric test. Moreover, to identify groups of products that are similar to or different from each other, Ward's method was used. The study includes nearly 90% of all individual retirement products offered in Poland. Findings & value added: For both types of retirement products studied (IKE and IKZE), we found that the more readable a contract is, the higher its rate of return is and the higher the costs charged are. Moreover, the more readable a contract is, the more transparent it is. The findings of the study provide financial institutions, the supervisor and creators of social policy with information on market imperfections and recommendations how to improve the individual retirement products offered on the market. Our research makes a unique contribution to the multidimensional research of supplementary pension systems. It also develops the understanding of how to successfully use linguistic tools in complex analyses of financial services. The results of the hierarchical cluster analysis proved that both IKE and IKZE products differ substantially and their features generally do not depend on the type of the financial provider.

This paper addresses the problem of demographic trends in Poland in terms of their impact on household financial decisions. Firstly, the results of an analysis of selected demographic data for Poland in comparison to other European countries are presented. Secondly, the main areas of household financial management sensitive to demographic risk are considered. Taking into account the current financial situation of households in Poland, we focused on the potential effects of demographic trends on borrowing decisions and decisions concerning private healthcare financing. In order to examine statistical interdependences between demographic factors and the value of loans granted to households as well as the variables measuring private healthcare expenditure, a correlation analysis and a simple linear regression were applied. The obtained results indicate that the old-age dependency ratio and migration flows significantly influence both the value of loans granted to households and their expenditure on pharmaceuticals and outpatient care.