TY  - JOUR
AU  - Venti,Steven F.
AU  - Wise,David A.
TI  - Have IRAs Increased U.S. Saving?:  Evidence from Consumer Expenditure Surveys
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 2217
PY  - 1987
Y2  - April 1987
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2217
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2217.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven F. Venti
Department of Economics
6106 Rockefeller Center
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-2526
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: steven.f.venti@dartmouth.edu

David A. Wise
Harvard Kennedy School
79 John F. Kennedy
Cambridge, MA   02138
E-Mail: dwise@nber.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1987-05-01
AB  - The vast majority of Individual Retirement Account contributions represent net new saving, based on evidence from the quarterly Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES). The results are based on analysis of the relationship between IRA contributions and other financial asset saving. The data show almost no substitution of IRAs for other saving. While the core of the paper is based on cross-section analysis, important use is made of the CES panel of independent cross-sections that span the period during which IRAs were introduced. Estimates for the post 1982 period, when IRAs were available to all employees, are based on a flexible constrained optimization model, with the IRA limit the principle constraint. The implications of this model for saving in the absence of the IRA option match very closely the actual non-IRA financial asset saving behavior prior to 1982. IRA saving does not show up as other financial asset saving in the pre-IRA period.
ER  -