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Household savings in transition economies

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Author Info
Denizer, Cevdet
Wolf, Holger C.
Ying, Yvonne
Abstract

During the transition from central planning to market economies now under way in Eastern Europe, output levels first collapsed by 40 to 50 percent in most countries, then staged a modest recovery in the last two years. Longer-term revival of growth requires a resumption of investment and thus, realistically, of domestic savings. To explore the determinants of household savings rates in transition economies, the authors studies matching household surveys for three Central European economies: Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland. They find that savings rates strongly increase with relative income, suggesting that increasing income inequality may play a role in determining savings rates. Savings rates are significantly higher for households that do not own their homes or that own few of the standard consumer durables-possibly because, with no retail credit or mortgage markets, households must save to purchase houses and durables. The influence of demographic factors broadly matches earlier findings for developing countries. Perhaps surprisingly, variables associated with the household's position in the transition process-including either sector of employment (public or private) or form of employment-do not play a significant role in determining savings rates.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 2299.

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Date of creation: 31 Mar 2000
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2299

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Keywords: Environmental Economics&Policies; Services&Transfers to Poor; Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Safety Nets and Transfers; Rural Poverty Reduction; Environmental Economics&Policies; Banks&Banking Reform; Economic Theory&Research;

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Feltenstein, Andrew & Lebow, David & van Wijnbergen, Sweder, 1990. "Savings, Commodity Market Rationing, and the Real Rate of Interest in China," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 22(2), pages 234-52, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Guiso, Luigi & Jappelli, Tullio & Terlizzese, Daniele, 1992. "Earnings uncertainty and precautionary saving," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 307-337, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Case, Anne, 1995. "Symposium on Consumption Smoothing in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 81-82, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Skinner, Jonathan, 1988. "Risky income, life cycle consumption, and precautionary savings," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 237-255, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Paul R. Gregory & Manouchehr Mokhtari & Wolfram Schrettl, 1999. "Do The Russians Really Save That Much? - Alternate Estimates From The Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(4), pages 694-703, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Avery, Robert B & Kennickell, Arthur B, 1991. "Household Saving in the U.S," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 409-32, December.
  7. Gersovitz, Mark, 1988. "Saving and development," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 10, pages 381-424 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Deaton, A. & Grosh, M., 1998. "Consumption," Papers 191, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Development Studies.
  9. B. Douglas Bernheim & John B. Shoven, 1991. "National Saving and Economic Performance," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bern91-2.
  10. Zeldes, Stephen P, 1989. "Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(2), pages 305-46, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Jonathan David Ostry & Carmen Reinhart & Masao Ogaki, 1995. "Saving Behavior in Low- and Middle -Income Developing Countries: A Comparison," IMF Working Papers 95/3, International Monetary Fund.
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  12. Carroll, Christopher D, 1994. "How Does Future Income Affect Current Consumption?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(1), pages 111-47, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Susan M. Collins, 1991. "Saving Behavior in Ten Developing Countries," NBER Chapters, in: National Saving and Economic Performance, pages 349-376 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  14. Eduardo Borensztein & Peter Montiel, 1991. "Savings, Investment, and Growth in Eastern Europe," IMF Working Papers 91/61, International Monetary Fund.
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  1. Mechthild Schrooten & Sabine Stephan, 2004. "Does Macroeconomic Policy Affect Private Savings in Europe?: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Data Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 431, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  2. Mechthild Schrooten & Sabine Stephan, 2003. "Private Savings in Eastern European EU-Accession Countries: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Data Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 372, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  3. Mechthild Schrooten & Sabine Stephan, 2003. "Back on Track? Savings Puzzles in EU Accession Countries," Economics Working Papers 023, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Tara Watson & Sara McLanahan, 2009. "Marriage Meets the Joneses: Relative Income, Identity, and Marital Status," NBER Working Papers 14773, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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