Dear NBER Researchers:
I am writing to call your attention to a new NBER project on the
Economics of Household Saving that Erik Hurst and I will be leading over the
course of the next two years. The project will broadly explore recent
developments in household saving, primarily from an empirical perspective but
recognizing new conceptual developments as well. The project will begin with
a meeting during the 2009 NBER Summer Institute on Saturday, July 18, at which
project participants will describe their planned research and summarize
existing work on a number of topics. This will be followed with a research
conference in the late spring of 2010, at which final research papers will be
presented and discussed.
The topics that we hope to touch on as part of this broad study include
the measurement of the U.S. household saving rate and the explanation for it's
decline during the last two decades; the link between financial and housing
wealth and saving behavior; the role of various economic risks, including
labor market shocks, asset price shocks, mortality, and health shocks, in
contributing to wealth accumulation and draw-down patterns; the role of
"behavioral" factors, including framing, education and financial literacy
programs, and design characteristics of employer-provided saving programs, in
affecting saving behavior; the link between housing and mortgage markets and
household saving behavior; and the impact of tax rules, through their impact
on after-tax returns and other channels, on household saving patterns.
We expect the research conference to include about ten studies. Authors
will receive an honorarium for their contribution, and our project grant from
the Smith Richardson Foundation may also enable us to provide some funds for
research support. Authors will be required to provide a several-page summary
of their project findings for inclusion in a conference proceedings summary.
Papers from the conference will be posted on the NBER website but they will
not be published in an NBER conference volume, although if the ultimate set of
authors is interested in exploring publication in a special issues of a
journal, we will pursue that option.
If you are already working on issues involving household saving and
would like to participate in this project, or if you have an early-stage
project or project proposal that you feel might be appropriate for inclusion
in this project, please contact both Erik and me at erik.hurst_at_chicagogsb.edu
and poterba_at_nber.org no later than January 16, 2009. We hope to select the
set of research studies that will be included in this project shortly
thereafter so that we can plan the details of both the Summer Institute
meeting and the follow-on research conference.
We look forward to hearing from you -- all best wishes for the holiday
season and the New Year. Thank you!
Jim
Received on Tue Dec 30 2008 - 11:42:55 EST
