La vie pour l'épargnant ne se réduit pas à un exercice de calcul. Les impasses des approches du cycle de vie standard et psycho-économique

To cope with the unrealistic predictions of the ?standard? life-cycle model (time separable preferences, expected utility, exponential discounting), the behavioral or psycho-economic approach imposes very strong limits to the saver?s rationality : inability of longterm planning, misplaced «emotions», numerous perception bias, etc. Since it assumes too timorous or myopic savers, its explanations of the limited rate of ownership of stocks in countries such as France, as well as the little diffusion of life annuities or the inadequacy of saving for retirement, do not appear entirely convincing. On the other hand, some of its recent development seem more promising, which acknowledge the crucial role of the subjective relation to one?s death in understanding some saving behaviour puzzles.