Household Savings in Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe: How Do Poorer Households Save?

Elisabeth Beckmann

No 8751, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Based on a survey of households in 10 Central Eastern European and Western Balkan countries, this paper presents new and unique evidence on which households have savings and how they save. The paper shows that the percentage of savers is low, and savings are frequently informal. Formal savings are dominated by bank savings, and participation in contractual and capital market savings is very low in comparison to high-income countries. Poor households are significantly less likely to have any savings; income also has an effect, albeit smaller, on the choice of formal versus informal savings. With a high density of bank branches in Central Eastern European and Western Balkan countries lack of physical access to banks does not explain the lack of formal savings. Lack of trust in banks reduces the probability of formal savings, especially bank savings.

Keywords: Educational Sciences; Capital Markets and Capital Flows; Capital Flows; Non Bank Financial Institutions; Mutual Funds; Financial Literacy; Insurance&Risk Mitigation; Social Funds and Pensions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fle, nep-ias, nep-iue and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:8751

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