Understanding why high income households save more than low income households

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huggett, M; Ventura, G
• 署名单位: Western University (University of Western Ontario); Georgetown University; Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3932(99)00058-6
• 发表日期: 2000
• 页码: 361-397
• 关键词: saving; distribution; life cycle

摘要

We use a calibrated life-cycle model to evaluate why high income households save as a group a much higher fraction of income than do low income households in US cross-section data. We find that (1) age and relatively permanent earnings differences across households together with the structure of the US social security system are sufficient to replicate this fact, (2) without social security the model economies still produce large differences in saving rates across income groups and (3) purely temporary earnings shocks of the magnitude estimated in US data alter only slightly the saving rates of high and low income households. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.