IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp1046.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Household Savings Decision and Income Uncertainty

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Beznoska
  • Richard Ochmann

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the effects of changes in the interest rate as well as transitory income uncertainty on households' consumption-savings decision. Applying a structural demand model to German survey data, we estimate the uncompensated interest rate elasticity for savings, in line with the literature, to around zero. Accordingly, any policy-induced variation of net returns to savings is expected to have no significant effects on the level of savings. Moreover, we find significant effects of precautionary savings on the consumption-savings decision. As a result of a doubling of transitory income uncertainty, an average household increases savings by 4:4%. These effects vary by household composition and social status.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Beznoska & Richard Ochmann, 2010. "Household Savings Decision and Income Uncertainty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1046, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1046
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.359312.de/dp1046.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Axel Borsch-Supan & Lothar Essig, 2003. "Household Saving in Germany: Results of the first SAVE study," NBER Working Papers 9902, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Summers, Lawrence H, 1984. "The After-Tax Rate of Return Affects Private Savings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(2), pages 249-253, May.
    3. Masao Ogaki & Jonathan D. Ostry & Carmen M. Reinhart, 1996. "Saving Behavior in Low- and Middle-Income Developing Countries: A Comparison," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(1), pages 38-71, March.
    4. Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Webb, Steven B & Corsetti, Giancarlo, 1992. "Household Saving in Developing Countries: First Cross-Country Evidence," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 6(3), pages 529-547, September.
    5. Masao Ogaki & Jonathan D. Ostry & Carmen M. Reinhart, 1996. "Saving Behavior in Low- and Middle-Income Developing Countries: A Comparison," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 43(1), pages 38-71, March.
    6. James N. Morgan, 1951. "The Structure of Aggregate Personal Saving," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(6), pages 528-528.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dimitar Damyanov, 2016. "Real Returns, Interest Income Tax, and Household Saving in Bulgaria," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 15-23, March.
    2. Richard Ochmann & Stefan Bach & Martin Beznoska, 2012. "The Retrospective Evaluation of Elements of the VAT System: The Case of Germany; Research Project on Behalf of the European Commission, TAXUD," DIW Berlin: Politikberatung kompakt, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, volume 63, number pbk63, April.
    3. Belke Ansgar, 2014. "Europäische Zentralbank: kontraproduktive unkonventionelle Geldpolitik und der Euro-Wechselkurs / European Central Bank: counter-productive unconventional monetary policy and the exchange rate," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 117-132, January.
    4. Johannes Geyer, 2011. "The Effect of Health and Employment Risks on Precautionary Savings," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 408, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Richard Ochmann, 2014. "Differential income taxation and household asset allocation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 880-894, March.
    6. Martin Beznoska & Richard Ochmann, 2013. "The interest elasticity of household savings: a structural approach with German micro data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 371-399, August.
    7. Marcus Klemm, 2012. "Job Security Perceptions and the Saving Behavior of German Households," Ruhr Economic Papers 0380, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0380 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Richard Ochmann, 2010. "Distributional and Welfare Effects of Germany's Year 2000 Tax Reform," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1083, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Klemm, Marcus, 2012. "Job Security Perceptions and the Saving Behavior of German Households," Ruhr Economic Papers 380, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Norman Loayza & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Luis Servén, 2001. "Una Revisión del COmportamiento y de los determinantes del ahorro en el mundo," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Felipe Morandé & Rodrigo Vergara & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Series Edit (ed.),Análisis Empírico del Ahorro en Chile, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 13-48, Central Bank of Chile.
    2. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    3. Senbeta, Sisay, 2011. "How applicable are the new keynesian DSGE models to a typical low-income economy?," MPRA Paper 30931, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Merike Kukk & Karsten Staehr, 2017. "Macroeconomic Factors in the Dynamics of Corporate and Household Saving: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 2585-2608, November.
    5. Kim, Yun-Hwan, 2001. "The Asian crisis, private sector saving, and policy implications," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 331-351.
    6. Ibrahim A. Elbadawi & Francis M. Mwega, 2000. "Can Africa's Saving Collapse Be Reversed?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 14(3), pages 415-443, September.
    7. Johansson, Sara, 1998. "Life cycles, oil cycles, or financial reforms? The growth in private savings rates in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 111-124, January.
    8. Mr. Philip R. Gerson, 1998. "The Impact of Fiscal Policy Variables on Output Growth," IMF Working Papers 1998/001, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Serven, Luis, 2000. "Does income inequality raise aggregate saving?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 417-446, April.
    10. Schmidt-Hebbel, Klaus & Serven, Luis, 1996. "Income inequality and aggregate saving : the cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1561, The World Bank.
    11. Bayoumi, Tamim & Masson, Paul R & Samiei, Hossein, 1996. "International Evidence on the Determinants of Saving," CEPR Discussion Papers 1368, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Ndanshau, Michael O. A. & Kilindo, Ali A. L., 2012. "Interest Rates and Financial Savings in Tanzania: 1967 - 2010," MPRA Paper 44387, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2013.
    13. Merike Kukk & Karsten Staehr, 2015. "Macroeconomic factors in corporate and household saving. Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2015-5, Bank of Estonia, revised 30 Dec 2015.
    14. Patrick Honohan, 1995. "The Impact of Financial and Fiscal Policies on Saving," Papers WP059, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Buffie, Edward F., 1999. "Optimal trade liberalization and the welfare costs of imperfect credibility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 371-398, April.
    16. Thomas Vendryes, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00783794, HAL.
    17. Alemayehu, Geda & Haile, Kebret, 2006. "Aggregate saving Behavior in Africa: a review of the Theory & the existing evidence with new empirical Results," Ethiopian Journal of Economics, Ethiopian Economics Association, vol. 12(01), pages 1-73.
    18. Norman Loayza & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel & Luis Servén, 2000. "Saving in Developing Countries: An Overview," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 14(3), pages 393-414, September.
    19. Haque, N. U. & Pesaran, M. H. & Sharma, Sunil, 1999. "Neglected Heterogeneity and Dynamics in Cross-country Savings Regressions," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9904, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Floro, Maria & Seguino, Stephanie, 2002. "Gender effects on aggregate saving: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," MPRA Paper 6541, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2000.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumption-savings decision; interest rate elasticity of savings; income uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.