La teoria del ciclo vitale del risparmio di Modigliani cinquant’anni dopo

In the early 50s Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg and Albert Ando, ??formulated the life-cycle theory of consumption and saving, which has been a huge success and undisputed for at least three decades. However, since the early 80s the life-cycle theory has been criticized in an increasingly tight for at least four reasons. The first is the existence of a significant intergenerational transmission of wealth, due to factors exogenous to the model of the life cycle. The second reason is the increasing evidence that the rich continue to save a greater extent than the less fortunate, as, in fact, Keynes argued. The third reason is that there is increasing evidence, at least in Western Europe and Japan, young families, during twenty and thirty years of age, save a positive and growing share of their income, which arises in decided contrast to the original version of the life-cycle theory. Finally, a number of empirical studies have found that retirees dismiss a high proportion of their income. This requires a serious rethinking of the approach of the life-cycle theory, which affects both the economic analysis and economic policy.