This study investigates the extent to which China’s high household savings rates can be explained by the life cycle theory. First, we document that Chinese parents depend on their children for support when elderly and that sons provide more support than daughters. Second, we test the two predictions of a simple life-cycle model that account for these two facts: 1) parents will increase savings ...

On May 15th of this year, I provided you with preliminary findings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study of issues related to submarine programs now under review by the Congress. In that earlier letter, I addressed the near-term savings that would result from a decision not to fund completion of the third Seawolf submarine. After briefly reviewing those savings, the accompanying atta...

During the last two decades, many countries around the world with unfunded social security system have experienced an ageing problem. Some have opted for a compulsory private saving scheme. New Zealand, on the other hand, maintains a unique two-pillar system: universal pension as a public pillar and voluntary savings as a private pillar. This paper provides a summary of findings from the litera...

This paper considers the links between trade liberalisation and technology choice in the nonliberalising country. Trade-liberalisation-induced changes in relative product prices have direct effects on equilibrium relative factor returns. The consequent changes in relative input costs may also lead producers to switch to alternative technologies, which will in turn induce a further indirect chan...

This paper shows how electricity is used by electric motors in both the industrial and the services’ sectors in the European Union, as well as the potential electricity savings by the year 2015 with the application of Energy-Efficient Motors and Variable Speed Drives. Additionally, the main barriers identified in the field characterization study and the measures to overcome those barriers are p...

This paper presents an investigation into the relationship between investment and savings in Australia over the period 1960-2007. Using four time series techniques our results reveal that the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle exists in a weak form with a lower saving retention coefficient. Granger Causality tests illustrate that savings Granger cause investment both in the short and long runs. Our resul...

Health reform is not in the details. Think I am wrong? How far did we get this summer wallowing around in claims about co-ops, public plans, death panels, rationing, and cost savings? Health reform is in the ethics.

This paper examines the ability of workers nearing retirement to report their expected retirement savings, where retirement savings refers to funds held in savings, checking, and investment-type accounts. Responding to such a question is likely to be difficult, even for those who are near retirement, because it requires respondents to assess when they will retire, their likely income stream bet...

Concern for individual consumption relative to per capita consumption can induce a fear of falling behind which increases precautionary savings. This fear intensifies as societal income growth increases, allowing for a positive effect of growth on savings rates. JEL classifications: E21, D11, D91.