THE SAVINGS OF ORDINARY AMERICANS - THE-PHILADELPHIA-SAVING-FUND-SOCIETY IN THE MID-19TH-CENTURY
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
刊物名称：
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
ISSN/ISSBN：
0022-0507
DOI：
10.1017/S0022050700015473
发表日期：
1994
页码：
735-767
关键词：
摘要：
We explore the savings behavior of ordinary Americans through their accounts at the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the oldest mutual savings bank in the United States. Our sample contains all 2,374 accounts opened in 1850. Savings accounts were generally brief affairs but median balances mounted to about three-quarters of annual income in three years. Deposits and withdrawals were infrequent, but substantial. Only female servants, as a group, used their accounts for life-cycle savings, eventually amassing large nest eggs. Men often used them to hold funds before acquiring physical property. We estimate saving rates between 10 and 15 percent on active accounts.