National Saving and Economic Performance

National Saving and Economic Performance
Author: John B. Shoven
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2009-02-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226044351

The past decade has witnessed a decline in saving throughout the developed world—the United States has the dubious distinction of leading the way. The consequences can be serious. For individuals, their own economic security and that of their families is jeopardized. For society, inadequate rates of saving have been blamed for a variety of ills—decreasing the competitive abilities of American industry, slowing capital accumulation, increasing our trade deficit, and forcing the sale of capital stock to foreign investors at bargain prices. Restoring acceptable rates of saving in the United States poses a major challenge to those who formulate national economic policy, especially since economists and policymakers alike still understand little about what motivates people to save. In National Saving and Economic Performance, edited by B. Douglas Bernheim and John B. Shoven, that task is addressed by offering the results of new research, with recommendations for policies aimed to improve saving. Leading experts in diverse fields of economics debate the need for more accurate measurement of official saving data; examine how corporate decisions to retain or distribute earnings affect household-level consumption and saving; and investigate the effects of taxation on saving behavior, correlations between national saving and international investment over time, and the influence of economic growth on saving. Presenting the most comprehensive and up-to-date research on saving, this volume will benefit both academic and government economists.

The Economic Effects of Raising National Saving

The Economic Effects of Raising National Saving
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre:
ISBN:

Raising the share of income we save is a frequent aim of public policy. That may be particularly apparent in debates about the size of the federal budget deficit, but concerns about the low household saving rate have also prompted policymakers to consider ways to encourage individuals to save more. How much individuals save will directly affect their future economic well-being, but from a macroeconomic perspective, the source of saving -- be it households, business, or government -- makes no difference. This report presents standard economic analysis of the macroeconomic effects of raising saving. An increase in saving means a reduction in spending. In the short run, that is likely to result in slower economic growth than would otherwise have been the case. When the saving rate rises, demand for financial assets rises as well. The increase in demand for assets puts upward pressure on their prices and that results in a decline in their yields and so interest rates fall. The decline in interest rates sets in motion a chain of events that tends to reduce the extent to which incomes might fall in response to an increase in the saving rate. Domestically, lower interest rates reduce the cost of financing expenditures on durable goods as well as business fixed investment, and thus increase some private sector demand. Lower interest rates can also have an effect on the balance of trade. A decline in U.S. interest rates, relative to foreign rates, is likely to reduce foreign purchases of U.S. assets. While an increase in saving may initially cause income to fall relative to what it otherwise would have been, in time any decline in income is likely to be offset by rising investment demand and an increase in net exports. If there is a one-time permanent increase in the rate of investment, each worker will have more capital with which to work, and there will be a one-time rise in the capital-labor ratio, and thus a one-time rise in labor productivity. The one-time increase in labor productivity will temporarily raise the growth rate of output. If financial capital flows easily between countries, then even a small decline in U.S. interest rates would be likely to have a large influence on the demand for dollardenominated assets. In that case, the net outflow of capital from the U.S. economy would minimize the decline in interest rates. The smaller the decline in interest rates is, the smaller any stimulus to domestic spending will be. In that case, more of the short-term contractionary effect of an increase in saving would be offset by rising net exports than by increased domestic investment. This report will not be updated.

The Role of National Saving in the World Economy

The Role of National Saving in the World Economy
Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 78
Release: 1990-03-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781557751348

This paper reviews and analyzes broad developments and considers specific policy measures to foster saving. The chapter also describes trends in national saving rates of industrial countries in recent years and briefly discusses the prospects over the medium term. The paper also discusses the effects of policy measures on national saving and investment. Fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies are all shown to have major implications for saving in developing countries. Fiscal restraint is especially important, since it increases national saving by both raising public saving and reducing the country's dependence on foreign borrowing. Exchange rate devaluation and the unification of exchange markets also appear to be effective in stimulating national saving. Interest rates and financial reforms play a crucial role in effecting an efficient allocation of resources, including the mobilization of savings to finance domestic investment.

The Economic Effects of the Savings & Loan Crisis

The Economic Effects of the Savings & Loan Crisis
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1992
Genre: Bank failures
ISBN:

I. Introduction -- II. So what went wrong in the 1980s? -- III. Analyzing the economic effects of the S&L losses -- IV. Estimating the economic effects of the S&L breakdown -- V. Incorporating deposit insurance in measures of the budget -- Appendix A. McKibbin-Sachs global model -- Appendix B. Estimation of capital losses.

The Economics of World War I

The Economics of World War I
Author: Stephen Broadberry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2005-09-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139448358

This unique volume offers a definitive new history of European economies at war from 1914 to 1918. It studies how European economies mobilised for war, how existing economic institutions stood up under the strain, how economic development influenced outcomes and how wartime experience influenced post-war economic growth. Leading international experts provide the first systematic comparison of economies at war between 1914 and 1918 based on the best available data for Britain, Germany, France, Russia, the USA, Italy, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands. The editors' overview draws some stark lessons about the role of economic development, the importance of markets and the damage done by nationalism and protectionism. A companion volume to the acclaimed The Economics of World War II, this is a major contribution to our understanding of total war.

The U.S. Savings Challenge

The U.S. Savings Challenge
Author: Charls E. Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2020-01-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000234746

Concern about the low U.S. saving rate and its negative impact on capital formation and economic growth prompted the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) Center for Policy Research to launch a multifaceted, three-year project to explore this issue in 1988. This volume is one element of that project. This book contains slightly updated versions of the papers presented at a two-and-one-half-day conference entitled Saving: The Challenge for the U.S. Economy, held in Washington, D.C., in October 1989.