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Household Saving Behaviour in New Zealand: A Cohort Analysis

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This paper seeks to improve our understanding of household saving behaviour. It is based on an analysis of unit record data from March years 1984 to 1998 taken from the Household Economic Survey (HES). There are limitations of the data set but it provides the only available estimates of income and expenditure, from which saving is estimated as a residual. The HES is a series of cross-sectional surveys rather than a true panel, so we construct synthetic cohorts rather than tracking individual households. We use a range of regression models to separate out the effect of age, birth-year cohort and year on saving rates. The typical age profile for savings is hump-shaped, peaks around age 57 and does not become negative at older ages. Such a profile appears to have shifted down for the cohorts born between 1920 and 1939 relative to the younger and older cohorts studied. This pattern of cohort effects is robust to the inclusion of conditioning variables and to the trimming from the sample of households with either negative or very large ratios of savings to consumption. Preliminary investigation supports the hypothesis that changes in the economic and policy environment help explain the different saving behaviour of different birth cohorts. Tentative results suggest that more favourable environments are associated with lower rates of lifetime saving, although more research is needed to confirm this finding.

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  • John K Gibson & Grant M Scobie, 2001. "Household Saving Behaviour in New Zealand: A Cohort Analysis," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/18, New Zealand Treasury.
    • Handle: RePEc:nzt:nztwps:01/18
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    Cited by:

    1. Guyonne Kalb & Rosanna Scutella, 2004. "Wage and employment rates in New Zealand from 1991 to 2001," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 21-47.
    2. Christopher Ball & John Creedy, 2014. "Population ageing and the growth of income and consumption tax revenue," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 169-182, August.
    3. Aneta Risteska & Kosta Sotiroski & Miroslav Gveroski & Tatjana Spaseska & Fanka Risteska,, 2014. "Analysis Of Saving With The Population Of Republic Of Macedonia-Conditions And Perspectives," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 2, pages 23-31, April.
    4. Touhami ABDELKHALEK & Florence ARESTOFF & Najat EL MEKKAOUI DE FREITAS & Sabine MAGE-BERTOMEU, 2012. "Les Déterminants De L’Épargne Des Ménages Au Maroc : Une Analyse Par Milieu Géographique," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 35, pages 195-214.
    5. Talosaga Talosaga & Mark Vink, 2014. "The Effect of Public Pension Eligibility Age on Household Saving: Evidence from a New Zealand Natural Experiment," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/21, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Christopher Ball & John Creedy, 2014. "Population ageing and the growth of income and consumption tax revenue," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 169-182, August.
    7. Mark Vink, 2014. "Intergenerational Developments in Household Saving Behaviour," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/23, New Zealand Treasury.
    8. David Aristei & Federico Perali & Luca Pieroni, 2008. "Cohort, age and time effects in alcohol consumption by Italian households: a double-hurdle approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 29-61, August.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12164 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Dmitry Kulikov & Karsten Staehr, "undated". "Microeconometric analysis of household saving in Estonia: income, wealth, financial exposure," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2007-8, Bank of Estonia, revised 03 Feb 2015.
    11. Federico Perali & David Aristei & Luca Pieroni, 2005. "Cohort analysis of alcohol consumption: a double hurdle approach," CHILD Working Papers wp09_05, CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY.
    12. Grant M Scobie & John K Gibson, 2003. "Household Saving Behaviour in New Zealand: Why do Cohorts Behave Differently?," Treasury Working Paper Series 03/32, New Zealand Treasury.
    13. Agnese Bicevska & Aleksejs Melihovs & Krista Kalnberzina, 2009. "Savings in Latvia," Discussion Papers 2009/01, Latvijas Banka.
    14. Iris Claus & Grant Scobie, 2001. "Household Net Wealth: An International Comparison," Treasury Working Paper Series 01/19, New Zealand Treasury.
    15. Grant M. Scobie & Katherine Henderson, 2009. "Saving Rates of New Zealanders: A Net Wealth Approach," Treasury Working Paper Series 09/04, New Zealand Treasury.
    16. Frethey-Bentham, Catherine, 2011. "Pseudo panels as an alternative study design," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 281-292.
    17. Inna Verbina, 2003. "Inconsistency in Savings Pattern: Is there an Endogeneity Bias?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-39, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Omar Aziz & Norman Gemmell & Athene Laws, 2016. "Income and Fiscal Incidence by Age and Gender: Some Evidence from New Zealand," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(3), pages 534-558, September.
    19. Aziz, Omar & Gemmell, Norman & Laws, Athene, 2013. "The Distribution of Income and Fiscal Incidence by Age and Gender: Some Evidence from New Zealand," Working Paper Series 18785, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    20. Luca Pieroni & David Aristei, 2006. "Regional Differences in Growth Rates: A Microdata Approach," ERSA conference papers ersa06p799, European Regional Science Association.
    21. John Gibson & Grant Scobie, 2001. "A cohort analysis of household income, consumption and saving," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 196-216.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household saving; lifecycle; age; cohorts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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