Life-Cycle Savings and Public Policy examines data on many households from a number of different countries. The hope is that through these observations we can learn about the ways policies affect savings, and that other differences among savers can be controlled for, instead of being blamed on cultural differences. This book features a consistent framework among chapters. It reaches a harmony between measurement and analysis to compare accurately the resulting data and statistics. It provides econometric methodology to reveal the way policies affect savings. The book features data on household savings in Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in saving, social insurance policy, or capital formation. - Features a consistent framework among chapters - Reaches a harmony between measurement and analysis to compare accurately the resulting data and statistics - Provides econometric methodology to reveal the way policies affect savings

This collection of essays, coauthored with other distinguished economists, offers new perspectives on saving, intergenerational economic ties, retirement planning, and the distribution of wealth. The book links life-cycle microeconomic behavior to important macroeconomic outcomes, including the roughly 50 percent postwar decline in America's rate of saving and its increasing wealth inequality. The book traces these outcomes to the government's five-decade-long policy of transferring, in the form of annuities, ever larger sums from young savers to old spenders. The book presents new theoretical and empirical analyses of altruism that rule out the possibility that private intergenerational transfers have offset those by the government.While rational life-cycle behavior can explain broad economic outcomes, the book also shows that a significant minority of households fail to make coherent life-cycle saving and insurance decisions. These mistakes are compounded by reliance on conventional financial planning tools, which the book compares with Economic Security Planner (ESPlanner), a new life-cycle financial planning software program. The application of ESPlanner to U.S. data indicates that most Americans approaching retirement age are saving at much lower rates than they should be, given potential major cuts in Social Security benefits.

"... Papers presented at a conference held at the Stouffer Wailea Hotel, Maui, Hawaii, January 6-7, 1989. ... part of the Research on Taxation program of the National Bureau of Economic Research." -- p. ix.

The book examines the effect of various public policies on economic performance in Japan. Various public policies include tax policy, regulation, macroeconomic policy, labour policy and some others. Many fields regarding economic performance are covered in this book: savings, portfolio choice, housings, investments, cost of capital, taxes, unemployment, wages, inequality, etc. Emphasis is placed on the examination of the two factor markets, namely, the capital and labour markets in Japan.