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Unemployment Risk and Precautionary Wealth: Evidence from Households' Balance Sheets

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher D Carroll
  • Karen E Dynan
  • Spencer D Krane
Abstract
Recent empirical work on the strength of precautionary saving has yielded widely varying conclusions The mixed findings may reflect a number of difficulties in proxying uncertainty executing instrumental variables estimation and incorporating theoretical restrictions into empirical models For each of these problems this paper uses existing best-practice techniques and some new strategies to relate unemployment probabilities from the Current Population Survey to net worth data from the Survey of Consumer Finances We find that increases in unemployment risk do not boost saving by households with relatively low permanent income but that a statistically significant precautionary effect emerges for households at a moderate level of income This finding is robust to certain restrictions on the sample but not robust across measures of wealth: We generally find a significant precautionary motive in broad measures of wealth that include home equity but not in narrower subaggregates comprising only financial assets and liabilities

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher D Carroll & Karen E Dynan & Spencer D Krane, 1999. "Unemployment Risk and Precautionary Wealth: Evidence from Households' Balance Sheets," Economics Working Paper Archive 416, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:jhu:papers:416
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caballero, Ricardo J., 1990. "Consumption puzzles and precautionary savings," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 113-136, January.
    2. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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