IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/0587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of Shifting Saving Patterns on Interest Rates and Economic Activity

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin M. Friedman

Abstract

Individuals in the United States consistently do most of their saving through financial intermediaries, but over time there have been and continue to be major shifts in people's reliance on specific kinds of intermediary institutions. In recent years, for example, individual savers have relied progressively more on pensions and thrift institutions and progressively less on life insurance companies. Moreover, legislative and regulatory actions currently under discussion would further alter the pattern of individuals' saving flows. This paper assesses the potential effects on interest rates, and via interest rates (and asset prices and yields more generally) on nonfinancial economic activity, of four specific shifts in saving behavior: additional pension contributions financed by individuals, additional pension contributions financed by businesses, additional purchases of life insurance by individuals, and additional deposits in thrift institutions by individuals. The paper's results indicate that such shifts, in plausible magnitudes, would have significant effects not only on interest rates and asset-liability flows but also on both the level and the composition of nonfinancial economic activity. In particular, although the specific effects differ from one shift to another, each would disproportionately stimulate capital formation in comparison to other forms of spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin M. Friedman, 1980. "Effects of Shifting Saving Patterns on Interest Rates and Economic Activity," NBER Working Papers 0587, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:0587
    Note: ME
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w0587.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feldstein, Martin S & Chamberlain, Gary, 1973. "Multimarket Expectations and the Rate of Interest," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 5(4), pages 873-902, November.
    2. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1980. "The Effect of Shifting Wealth Ownership on the Term Structure of Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 0239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. J. E. Stiglitz, 1970. "A Consumption-Oriented Theory of the Demand for Financial Assets and the Term Structure of Interest Rates," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 37(3), pages 321-351.
    4. Friedman, Benjamin Morton, 1977. "Financial Flow Variables and the Short-Run Determination of Long-Term Interest Rates," Scholarly Articles 4554309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    5. Zvi Bodie, 1980. "Purchasing-Power Annuities: Financial Innovation for Stable Real Retirement Income in an Inflationary Environment," NBER Working Papers 0442, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Franco Modigliani & Richard Sutch, 1967. "Debt Management and the Term Structure of Interest Rates: An Empirical Analysis of Recent Experience," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 569-569.
    7. de Leeuw, Frank & Gramlich, Edward M, 1969. "The Channels of Monetary Policy: A Further Report on the Federal Reserve-M.I.T. Model," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 24(2), pages 265-290, May.
    8. Dwight M. Jaffee & Kenneth T. Rosen, 1979. "Mortgage Credit Availability and Residential Construction," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 10(2), pages 333-386.
    9. Frank De Leeuw & Edward M. Gramlich, 1968. "The Federal Reserve-MIT economic model," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jan, pages 11-40.
    10. Lintner, John, 1969. "The Aggregation of Investor's Diverse Judgments and Preferences in Purely Competitive Security Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 347-400, December.
    11. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1980. "The Effect of Shifting Wealth Ownership on the Term Structure of Interest Rates: The Case of Pensions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(3), pages 567-590.
    12. Hopewell, Michael H & Kaufman, George G, 1973. "Bond Price Volatility and Term to Maturity: A Generalized Respecification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 749-753, September.
    13. Oldfield, George S, Jr, 1977. "Financial Aspects of the Private Pension System," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 9(1), pages 48-54, February.
    14. Feldstein, Martin, 1978. "Do private pensions increase national savings?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 277-293, December.
    15. Modigliani, Franco & Shiller, Robert J, 1973. "Inflation, Rational Expectations and the Term Structure of Interest Rates," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 40(157), pages 12-43, February.
    16. Friedman, Benjamin M, 1979. "Substitution and Expectation Effects on Long-Term Borrowing Behavior and Long-Term Interest Rates," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(2), pages 131-150, May.
    17. Feldstein, Martin S, 1974. "Social Security, Induced Retirement, and Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(5), pages 905-926, Sept./Oct.
    18. Friedman, Benjamin M, 1977. "Financial Flow Variables and the Short-Run Determination of Long-Term Interest Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(4), pages 661-689, August.
    19. Ando, Albert K, 1974. "Some Aspects of Stabilization Policies, the Monetarist Controversy, and the MPS Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 15(3), pages 541-571, October.
    20. Benjamin M. Friedman & V. Vance Roley, 1979. "A Note on the Derivation of Linear Homogeneous Asset Demand Functions," NBER Working Papers 0345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Feldstein, Martin S & Eckstein, Otto, 1970. "The Fundamental Determinants of the Interest Rate," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(4), pages 363-375, November.
    22. Bischoff, Charles W, 1970. "A Model of Nonresidential Construction in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(2), pages 10-17, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1981. "Debt Management Policy, Interest Rates, and Economic Activity," NBER Working Papers 0830, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1979. "The Determination of Long-Term Interest Rates: Implications for Monetary and Fiscal Policies," NBER Working Papers 0366, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. V. Vance Roley, 1980. "The Effect of Federal Debt Management Policy on Corporate Bond and Equity Yields," NBER Working Papers 0586, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1982. "Federal Reserve Policy, Interest Rate Volatility, and the U.S. Capital Raising Mechanism," NBER Working Papers 0917, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. David G. Hartman, 1980. "International Effects on the U.S. Capital Market," NBER Working Papers 0581, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1978. "Price Inflation, Portfolio Choice, and Nominal Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 0235, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Byeongseon Seo, 2000. "Nonlinear Mean Reversion In The Term Structure Of Interest Rates," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 121, Society for Computational Economics.
    8. Ignazio Visco, 2005. "From theory to practice in macroeconomic models: post-Keynesian eclecticism," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(233-234), pages 67-90.
    9. Ignazio Visco, 2005. "From theory to practice in macroeconomic models: post-Keynesian eclecticism," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(233-234), pages 67-90.
    10. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1978. "How Important is Disaggregation in Structural Models of Interest Rate Determination?," NBER Working Papers 0294, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1980. "The Effect of Shifting Wealth Ownership on the Term Structure of Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 0239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Shiller, Robert J. & Huston McCulloch, J., 1990. "The term structure of interest rates," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: B. M. Friedman & F. H. Hahn (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 627-722, Elsevier.
    13. Benjamin M. Friedman & V. Vance Roley, 1981. "Structural Models of Interest Rate Determination and Portfolio Behavior in the Corporate and Government Bond Markets," NBER Working Papers 0205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Martin Feldstein, 1983. "Fiscal Policies, Inflation, and Capital Formation," NBER Chapters, in: Inflation, Tax Rules, and Capital Formation, pages 61-80, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bekdache, Basma, 2001. "Term Premia and the Maturity Composition of the Federal Debt: New Evidence from the Term Structure of Interest Rates," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 519-539, November.
    16. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1978. "Interest Rate Expectations Versus Forward Rates: Evidence From An Expectations Survey," NBER Working Papers 0295, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Park, Chul Woo, 1999. "Maturity structure of public debt and expected bond returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(9), pages 1407-1435, September.
    18. V. Vance Roley, 1980. "A Disaggregated Structural Model of the Treasury Securities, Corporate Bond, and Equity Markets: Estimation and Simulation Results," NBER Technical Working Papers 0007, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ignazio Visco, 2005. "Dalla teoria alla pratica nei modelli macroeconomici: l’eclettismo post-keynesiano," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 58(230-231), pages 71-96.
    20. Pesando, James E., 1981. "On forecasting interest rates : An efficient markets perspective," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 305-318.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:0587. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.