Do funded pensions contribute to higher aggregate savings? A cross-country analysis

Do Funded Pensions Contribute to Higher Aggregate Savings? A Cross-Country Analysis. - In this paper we test the hypothesis that increases in funded pension wealth contribute to higher aggregate savings by employing a panel data set of ten countries over the 1982-1993 period. We develop a proxy for changes in funded pension wealth for this sample of countries based on pension fund asset data. Using this measure and controlling for other determinants of savings, we estimate the relationship between aggregate saving rates and changes in funded pension wealth. Our results suggest that the build-up of pension assets exerts a positive and statistically significant effect on aggregate saving rates, and that this impact differs for OECD and non-OECD countries. JEL no. E21, G23,O57.