Disentangling the Importance of the Precautionary Saving Motive

56 Pages Posted: 22 Oct 2004

See all articles by Arthur B. Kennickell

Arthur B. Kennickell

Federal Reserve Board - Department of Research & Statistics

Annamaria Lusardi

Stanford University - Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: October 2004

Abstract

We assess the importance of the precautionary saving motive by relying on a direct question about precautionary wealth from the 1995 and 1998 waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances. In this survey, a new question has been designed to elicit the amount of desired precautionary wealth. This allows us to bound the amount of precautionary accumulation and to overcome many of the problems of previous works on this topic. We find that a precautionary saving motive exists and affects virtually every type of household. Even though this motive does not give rise to large amounts of wealth for young and middle-age households, it is particularly important for two groups: older households and business owners. Overall, we provide strong evidence that we need to take the precautionary saving motive into account when modeling saving behavior.

Keywords: Risk, buffer-stock models of saving, old cohort wealth, business owners wealth

JEL Classification: D91, E21, C21

Suggested Citation

Kennickell, Arthur B. and Lusardi, Annamaria, Disentangling the Importance of the Precautionary Saving Motive (October 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=608042 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.608042

Arthur B. Kennickell

Federal Reserve Board - Department of Research & Statistics ( email )

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Annamaria Lusardi (Contact Author)

Stanford University - Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research ( email )

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