 A theory of the competitive saving motiveJournal of International Economics, 2013, vol. 91, issue 2, 275-289 Abstract: Motivated by recent empirical work, this paper formalizes a theory of competitive savings — an arms race in household savings for mating competition that is made more fierce by an increase in the male-to-female ratio in the pre-marital cohort. Relative to the empirical work, the theory can clarify a number of important questions: What determines the strength of the savings response by males (or households with a son)? Can women (or households with a daughter) dis-save? What are the conditions under which aggregate savings would go up in response to a higher sex ratio? This theory can potentially help to understand the savings patterns in China, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other economies that have experienced a dramatic increase in the pre-marital sex ratio. Keywords: Surplus men; Savings race; Trade surplus; Global imbalances (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:inecon:v:91:y:2013:i:2:p:275-289 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.09.003 Access Statistics for this article Journal of International Economics is currently edited by Martin Uribe and Costas Arkolakis More articles in Journal of International Economics from Elsevier |
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