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The effects of consumption variability on savings, evidence from a panel of Muscovite households

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  • Guariglia, Alessandra
  • Kim, Byung-Yeon

Abstract

Due to the high uncertainty characterizing them, transition economies provide an extraordinary opportunity to test the precautionary saving hypothesis. This paper represents an attempt to exploit this opportunity. We use a panel of 2,346 Muscovite households, over the 12 months of 1996, to construct two time‐varying measures of consumption growth variability, which we use as proxies for households’ perceived uncertainty. We then regress household saving on these uncertainty variables using a GMM‐system estimator. We find that both uncertainty measures generally have a positive and statistically significant effect on saving. This result, which is robust to the use of different measures of saving, supports the precautionary saving hypothesis.
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  • Guariglia, Alessandra & Kim, Byung-Yeon, 1999. "The effects of consumption variability on savings, evidence from a panel of Muscovite households," Economics Discussion Papers 10000, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:esx:essedp:10000
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    Cited by:

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    2. Guariglia, Alessandra & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2004. "Private medical insurance and saving: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 761-783, July.
    3. Yih‐Luan Chyi & Yu‐Lun Liu, 2007. "Income Uncertainty and Wealth Accumulation: How Precautionary are Taiwanese Households?," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 301-319, September.
    4. Baiardi, Donatella & Manera, Matteo & Menegatti, Mario, 2013. "Consumption and precautionary saving: An empirical analysis under both financial and environmental risks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 157-166.
    5. Mario Menegatti, 2007. "Consumption and uncertainty: a panel analysis in Italian Regions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 39-42.
    6. Ruiz, Freddy & Lugilde, Alba, 2019. "Decent work and the effect of job instability on consumption of Colombian households," MPRA Paper 92717, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Frank M. Fossen & Davud Rostam-Afschar, 2013. "Precautionary and Entrepreneurial Savings: New Evidence from German Households," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 528-555, August.
    8. Baiardi, Donatella & Manera, Matteo & Menegatti, Mario, 2014. "The Effects of Environmental Risk on Consumption: an Empirical Analysis on the Mediterranean Countries," Energy: Resources and Markets 172443, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    9. Mario Menegatti, 2010. "Uncertainty And Consumption: New Evidence In Oecd Countries," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 227-242, July.
    10. Mariacristina Rossi & Dario Sansone, 2018. "Precautionary savings and the self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 105-127, June.
    11. Alba Lugilde & Roberto Bande & Dolores Riveiro, 2018. "Precautionary saving in Spain during the great recession: evidence from a panel of uncertainty indicators," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1151-1179, December.
    12. Sayema H. Bidisha, 2008. "Saving Behaviour of the Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the UK: Evidence from Panel Data," Discussion Papers 08/08, University of Nottingham, School of Economics.
    13. Byung‐Yeon Kim, 2005. "Poverty and informal economy participation," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(1), pages 163-185, January.
    14. Lugilde, Alba & Bande, Roberto & Riveiro, Dolores, 2017. "Precautionary Saving: a review of the theory and the evidence," MPRA Paper 77511, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Shida, Yoshisada, 2015. "Forced Savings in the Soviet Republics: Re-examination," RRC Working Paper Series 54, Russian Research Center, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.

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