The Effect of Individual Retirement Accounts on Household Consumption and National Saving

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9718645
AutoresOrazio P Attanasio (University College London, IFS, and NBER), Orazio Attanasio (0000-0003-3693-4393, University College London), Thomas Deleire (0000-0003-3658-0177, University of Chicago)
Ano2002
Volume112
Fascículo481
Páginas504-538
Data de publicação2002-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Economic Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0013-0133 • E-ISSN: 1468-0297
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1468-0297.00728
OpenAlexW1981396945
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas17

A major debate exists on whether expanding tax‐favoured savings accounts such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) will increase national savings. Much of the empirical debate has centred on whether IRA contributions before the Tax Reform Act of 1986 represented new savings or merely reshuffled assets. We find no evidence that households financed their IRA contributions from reductions in consumption, at least initially. We find evidence that households financed their IRA contributions from existing savings or from saving that would have been done anyway. Our results indicate that, at most, 9% of IRA contributions represented net additions to national saving

Consumption (sociology · Economics · Macroeconomics · National accounts · National Income and Product Accounts · National savings · Public economics · Savings account · Sociology · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Housing Market and Economics