Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/171371 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2017-96
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
The aggregate saving indicator does not directly reflect changes in individuals' microeconomic behavior. From the official statistics' point of view, households choosebetween spending, which generates additional income and consumption in the economy, and setting money aside, which does not. Formally, households may not (if the authors disregard housing investment) choose to save, because the aggregate saving statistical indicator is a residual concept defined as the ensuing difference between aggregate disposable income and consumption. It measures the change in net worth, which, in a closed economy, may only be generated by the production of capital goods and an increase in inventories. Using an agentbased model, the authors show that shocks unrelated to structural changes in households' behavior may generate positively correlated fluctuations in the aggregate saving rate, productivity growth and lending. Meanwhile, a genuine increase in the average individual propensity to save is not necessarily associated with a higher aggregate saving rate.
Subjects: 
saving
economic growth
credit
agent-based model
national accounts
JEL: 
C63
G21
O16
O40
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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