IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mlt/wpaper/0221.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Saving behaviour in Malta: Insights from the Household Budgetary Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Glenn Abela
  • William Gatt

    (Central Bank of Malta)

Abstract

We use household-level data from the Household Budgetary Survey to study the saving patterns of Maltese households. We first establish a set of key observations from the data, showing that the likelihood of saving rises with income, age and education. We then estimate a Logit model of the probability of saving on a set of household characteristics. Our results support the observations from the raw data on income and age, but show that when we control for a host of factors, the probability of saving is actually highest among households with low education. We interpret these findings through the precautionary and bequest motives as predicted by theory. Other household characteristics, such as house tenure, marital status and the number of individuals in a household also affect the probability of saving. An extended Generalised Order Logit model sheds further light on the saving intensity of households based on their characteristics. These findings can inform both macroeconomic model development as well as guide policy formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Glenn Abela & William Gatt, 2021. "Saving behaviour in Malta: Insights from the Household Budgetary Survey," CBM Working Papers WP/02/2021, Central Bank of Malta.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlt:wpaper:0221
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.centralbankmalta.org/site/Reports-Articles/2021/WP-02-2021.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Finlay Richard & Price Fiona, 2015. "Household saving in Australia," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 677-704, July.
    2. Dietz, Robert D. & Haurin, Donald R., 2003. "The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 401-450, November.
    3. Greg Kaplan & Giovanni L. Violante, 2018. "Microeconomic Heterogeneity and Macroeconomic Shocks," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 167-194, Summer.
    4. Luigi Ventura & Charles Yuji Horioka, 2020. "The wealth decumulation behavior of the retired elderly in Italy: the importance of bequest motives and precautionary saving," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 575-597, September.
    5. Brian Micallef & Nathaniel Debono, 2020. "The rental sector and the housing block in STREAM," CBM Working Papers WP/03/2020, Central Bank of Malta.
    6. Alessandra Guariglia, 2001. "Saving behaviour and earnings uncertainty: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 14(4), pages 619-634.
    7. Stephen P. Zeldes, 1989. "Optimal Consumption with Stochastic Income: Deviations from Certainty Equivalence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 275-298.
    8. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John B. Jones, 2010. "Why Do the Elderly Save? The Role of Medical Expenses," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(1), pages 39-75, February.
    9. Fátima Cardoso & Nuno Alves, 2010. "Household Saving in Portugal: Micro and Macroeconomic Evidence," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    10. Christopher D. Carroll, 1997. "Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 1-55.
    11. William Gatt, "undated". "The determinants of household saving behaviour in Malta," CBM Working Papers WP/03/2014, Central Bank of Malta.
    12. Richard Disney & John Gathergood & Andrew Henley, 2010. "House Price Shocks, Negative Equity, and Household Consumption in the United Kingdom," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(6), pages 1179-1207, December.
    13. William Gatt & Owen Grech, "undated". "An assessment of the Maltese housing market," CBM Policy Papers PP/02/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    14. Martin Browning & Annamaria Lusardi, 1996. "Household Saving: Micro Theories and Micro Facts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 1797-1855, December.
    15. Masson, Paul R & Bayoumi, Tamim & Samiei, Hossein, 1998. "International Evidence on the Determinants of Private Saving," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 12(3), pages 483-501, September.
    16. Harris, Mark N & Loundes, Joanne & Webster, Elizabeth, 2002. "Determinants of Household Saving in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 78(241), pages 207-223, June.
    17. Andreas Fagereng & Martin Blomhoff Holm & Benjamin Moll & Gisle Natvik, 2019. "Saving Behavior Across the Wealth Distribution: The Importance of Capital Gains," NBER Working Papers 26588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Skinner, Jonathan, 1988. "Risky income, life cycle consumption, and precautionary savings," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 237-255, September.
    19. Alik-Lagrange, Arthur & Schmidt, Tobias, 2015. "The pattern of home ownership across cohorts and its impact on the net wealth distribution: Empirical evidence from Germany and the US," Discussion Papers 11/2015, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Nicola Fuchs‐Schündeln & Paolo Masella & Hannah Paule‐Paludkiewicz, 2020. "Cultural Determinants of Household Saving Behavior," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(5), pages 1035-1070, August.
    21. Carroll, Christopher D. & Holm, Martin B. & Kimball, Miles S., 2021. "Liquidity constraints and precautionary saving," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    22. Engelhardt, Gary V., 1996. "House prices and home owner saving behavior," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3-4), pages 313-336, June.
    23. Di, Zhu Xiao & Belsky, Eric & Liu, Xiaodong, 2007. "Do homeowners achieve more household wealth in the long run?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 274-290, November.
    24. Arna Olafsson & Michaela Pagel, 2018. "The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle: New Evidence from Personal Finances," NBER Working Papers 24405, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Julia Le Blanc & Alessandro Porpiglia & Federica Teppa & Junyi Zhu & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2016. "Household Saving Behavior in the Euro Area," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(2), pages 15-69, June.
    26. Turner, Tracy M. & Luea, Heather, 2009. "Homeownership, wealth accumulation and income status," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 104-114, June.
    27. Mark N. Harris & Joanne Loundes & Elizabeth Webster, 2002. "Determinants of Household Saving in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 78(241), pages 207-223, June.
    28. Le Blanc, Julia, 2016. "Household Saving Behaviour in Ireland," Economic Letters 05/EL/16, Central Bank of Ireland.
    29. Richard Williams, 2006. "Generalized ordered logit/partial proportional odds models for ordinal dependent variables," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 6(1), pages 58-82, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Glenn Abela & William Gatt, "undated". "Who are the (dis)savers? A look at household saving patters and wealth composition in Malta," CBM Policy Papers PP/01/2022, Central Bank of Malta.
    2. Brian Micallef, 2022. "Minimum Income Required to Purchase a Property: Conceptual Framework and Application to Malta," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(10), pages 1-13, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Conor O'Toole & Kieran McQuinn & Philip Economides, 2021. "Household savings constraints, uncertainty and macroprudential policy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(2), pages 238-260, May.
    2. Marcus Klemm, 2012. "Job Security Perceptions and the Saving Behavior of German Households," Ruhr Economic Papers 0380, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0380 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Levenko, Natalia, 2020. "Perceived uncertainty as a key driver of household saving," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 126-145.
    5. Klemm, Marcus, 2012. "Job Security Perceptions and the Saving Behavior of German Households," Ruhr Economic Papers 380, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    6. Mark Huggett, 2004. "Precautionary Wealth Accumulation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 769-781.
    7. Catalina Amuedo‐Doranles & Susan Pozo, 2002. "Precautionary Saving by Young Immigrants and Young Natives," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(1), pages 48-71, July.
    8. Ethan Hunt & Dr. Hyungjoon Jeon & Dr. Sang Lee, 2021. "Determinants of Household Savings: An Empirical Evidence from the OECD Member Countries," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(2), pages 62-75, June.
    9. Emilio Fernandez-Corugedo, 2002. "Soft liquidity constraints and precautionary saving," Bank of England working papers 158, Bank of England.
    10. Levin, Mark (Левин, Марк) & Matrosova, Ksenia (Матросова, Ксения), 2018. "Development and Research of Economic Behavior of Households in Changing Conditions [Разработка И Исследование Экономического Поведения Домохозяйств В Изменяющихся Условиях]," Working Papers 041825, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    11. Campbell, John Y. & Cocco, Joao F., 2007. "How do house prices affect consumption? Evidence from micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 591-621, April.
    12. Aaberge, Rolf & Liu, Kai & Zhu, Yu, 2017. "Political uncertainty and household savings," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 154-170.
    13. Jonathan A. Parker & Bruce Preston, 2005. "Precautionary Saving and Consumption Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1119-1143, September.
    14. Damien Echevin, 1999. "Nouvelles approches des comportements d'épargne et de consommation," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 324(1), pages 9-18.
    15. Lothar Essig, 2005. "Precautionary saving and old-age provisions: Do subjective saving motive measures work?," MEA discussion paper series 05084, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    16. Hugo Benitez-Silva, 2000. "A Dynamic Model Of Labor Supply, Consumption/Saving, And Annuity Decisions Under Uncertainty," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 128, Society for Computational Economics.
    17. Hugo Benitez-Silva, 2000. "A Joint Model of Labor Supply and Consumption Decisions Under Uncertainty," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0196, Econometric Society.
    18. Hugo Benítez-Silva, 2003. "The Annuity Puzzle Revisited," Working Papers wp055, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    19. Essig, Lothar, 2005. "Precautionary saving and old-age provisions : do subjective saving motives measures work?," Papers 05-22, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    20. James Feigenbaum, 2005. "Heterogeneity vs Uncertainty in Anticipation of a Borrowing Constraint," Working Paper 230, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jan 2005.
    21. Lugilde, Alba & Bande, Roberto & Riveiro, Dolores, 2017. "Precautionary Saving: a review of the theory and the evidence," MPRA Paper 77511, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mlt:wpaper:0221. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emmanuel Cachia (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.centralbankmalta.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.