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Precautionary Savings and Self-Selection - Evidence from the German Reunification "Experiment"

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Author Info
Nicola Fuchs-Schundeln
Matthias Schundeln
Abstract

We combine particular features of the German civil service with the unique event of German reunification to test the theory of precautionary savings and to quantify the importance of self-selection into occupations due to differences in risk aversion. In the presence of self-selection, failing to control for risk aversion in empirical tests of precautionary savings results in a bias that could lead to a false rejection of the theory. We exploit the fact that for individuals from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) German reunification in 1990 caused an exogenous reassignment of income risks. Our findings suggest that self-selection of risk averse individuals into low-risk occupations is economically important and decreases aggregate precautionary wealth holdings significantly.

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Paper provided by Harvard - Institute of Economic Research in its series Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers with number 2069.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:fth:harver:2069

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  1. Harald Uhlig, 2008. "The Slow Decline of East Germany," NBER Working Papers 14553, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Simon Luechinger & Stephan Meier & Alois Stutzer, 2008. "Why does unemployment hurt the employed?: evidence from the life satisfaction gap between the public and private sectors," Public Policy Discussion Paper 08-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Erik Hurst & Arthur Kennickell & Annamaria Lusardi & Francisco Torralba, 2005. "Precautionary Savings and the Importance of Business Owners," NBER Working Papers 11731, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Christopher D. Carroll & Jirka Slacalek & Martin Sommer, 2008. "International Evidence On Sticky Consumption Growth," CFS Working Paper Series 2008/09, Center for Financial Studies. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Claudia R. Sahm, 2007. "Stability of risk preference," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-66, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  6. Luechinger, Simon & Meier, Stephan & Stutzer, Alois, 2008. "Why Does Unemployment Hurt the Employed? Evidence from the Life Satisfaction Gap between the Public and the Private Sector," IZA Discussion Papers 3385, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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