Confiance et épargne : un bilan de la littérature

Trust plays an increasingly important role in explaining the volume and structure of household savings. This paper examines the literature on three disparate subjects: the macroeconomics of saving, the economics of institutions and the economics of trust. The concept of trust is best situated to unify these three poles of the literature on the determinants of savings. It introduces an inherently subjective dimension into the explanation of the dynamics, revealing why empirical tests often produce ambiguous results and confirming that in the social sciences the cold, objective facts are less important than the facts as perceived through the lens of an agent's beliefs. We evaluate the theoretical relationship between self-confidence, trust in others, and trust in institutions on the one hand, and savings behaviour on the other. Our review of empirical articles that take this subjective dimension into account yields promising results. Individuals entrust their savings on the basis of the representations they have of themselves, of others and of institutions. The more confident they are, the more they choose to save within financial institutions and to take risks with their investments. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for economic research and for the determination of public policies aiming to increase both the volume and the structural efficiency of savings.