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The cultural origin of saving behavior

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  • Costa-Font, Joan
  • Giuliano, Paola
  • Özcan, Berkay

Abstract

Traditional economic interpretations have not been successful in explaining differences in saving rates across countries. One hypothesis is that savings respond to cultural specific social norms. The accepted view in economics so far is that culture does not have any effect on savings. We revisit this evidence using a novel dataset, which allows us to study the saving behavior of up to three generations of immigrants in the United Kingdom. Against the backdrop of existing evidence, we find that cultural preferences are an important explanation for cross-country differences in saving behavior, and their relevance persists up to three generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa-Font, Joan & Giuliano, Paola & Özcan, Berkay, 2018. "The cultural origin of saving behavior," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90225, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:90225
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/90225/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. The Cultural Origin of Saving Behavior
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2020-07-21 18:00:09

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    Cited by:

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    8. Abigail McKnight & Mark Rucci, 2020. "The financial resilience of households: 22 country study with new estimates, breakdowns by household characteristics and a review of policy options," CASE Papers /219, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    9. Christopher Ellis & Jon C. Thompson & Jiabin Wu, 2020. "Labor market characteristics and cultural choice," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1584-1617, September.
    10. Richwine, Jason, 2023. "Savings behavior among immigrants and their U.S.-born children: A test of the culture-transplant model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    11. Dario Maimone Ansaldo Patti & Pietro Navarra & Giuseppe Sobbrio, 2022. "Insecure Property Rights and Conflicts: How to Solve Them?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-32, December.

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