Determinants of household savings : An international cross-country analysis to detect the determinants of household savings

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to look into the determinants of household savings in an international cross-section. The focus is on the effects from social security, old-age dependency, participation rate and change in unemployment, among other variables as an addition to the disequilibrium saving hypotheses, which is the base theory for the savings function. The fixed-effect least square dummy variable method is used on panel data of 14 OECD countries over the time-span 2000 to 2018. The determinants that has a significant effect on household saving in the empirical result is unanticipated income; a positive sign supports the permanent-income hypothesis and the disequilibrium saving hypothesis. This means that individuals tend to save the transitory income. The next significant variable is the lagged savings rate, which indicates inactivity in the savings behavior. The change in the unemployment rate is also significant and the positive sign supports the uncertainty hypothesis, indicating that individuals tend to save for precautionary reasons. The last significant variable was social security and it had a negative effect on household savings; which is supported by the life-cycle hypothesis, and can indicate a wealth substitution effect or general confidence in the social security system.