- Home
- Publications
- A Comparison Of Personal Sector Saving Rates In The UK, US And Italy
A Comparison of Personal Sector Saving Rates in the UK, US and Italy


Related Themes
Productivity, Trade, and Regional EconomiesPaper Category Number
192
We develop the approach of Gokhale, Kotlikoff and Sabelhaus (1996), based on the life-cycle model of savings, to decompose the large differences in the personal sector saving rates between the UK,US and Italy. Our work suggests that the US saving rate is lower principally because Americans on average retire later. The Italian saving rate is high predominantly because Italians are unable to borrow, especially when they are young. We also found that demography and the different tax and benefit systems are able to explain little of the cross-sectional differences in saving rates.
The study estimates the size of, and accounts for the possible importance of, intergenerational private transfers in determining saving rates.
Related Blog Posts


Regenerating the UK Regions – Insights from New Economic Geography
Arnab Bhattacharjee
Adrian Pabst
6 min read

What Next for UK Industrial Policy and Productivity?
Konstantinos Myrodias
Adrian Pabst
4 min read

Related Projects
Related News
Related Publications
Agroforestry Programs in the Colombian Amazon: Selection, Treatment and Exposure Effects on Deforestation
06 May 2022
Discussion Papers
Econometric Analysis of the Determinants of Bank Profitability in Three Major African Counties: Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa
30 Mar 2022
Discussion Papers
Related events

Productivity Commission Evidence Session: What and How Can Productivity Be Improved?

Productivity Commission Evidence Session on International Best Practice

Productivity after Covid-19
Workshop on Productivity and Structural Change

2021 Prais Lecture: State Capacity and Economic Growth: Cautionary Tales
Sizing the Productivity Problem: an evidence session from the Productivity Commission

