Why the US Saving Rate is Low — A Conflict between the National Accountant’s and the Individual Saver’s Perceptions

Tibor Scitovsky

Chapter 7 in International Monetary Problems and Supply-Side Economics, 1986, pp 125-134 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract America’s economic troubles are blamed on many causes, among them on the improvidence of the general public. Americans are accused of being spendthrifts and of having become more so in these difficult stagflationary years when, so the argument runs, saving is desperately needed to make possible investment and the rise in productivity, which hinges on investment. The accusation is based on statistical evidence, which indeed shows that personal saving as a proportion of disposable personal income in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years during the late 1970s and has been for a long time quite a bit lower than it is in most Western European countries. During the 1960–78 period, for example, the US saving rate averaged 6.9 per cent, which is just about the same as Sweden’s 6.8 per cent average for the corresponding period and Great Britain’s 6.9 per cent; but significantly lower than Western Germany’s 11.9 per cent, France’s 13.2 per cent, and the Netherland’s 14.7 per cent average.

Keywords: Capital Consumption; Disposable Income; Personal Income; Home Owner; Saving Rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1986
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-18392-0_7

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