TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alter,George
AU  - Goldin,Claudia
AU  - Rotella,Elyce
TI  - The Savings of Ordinary Americans: The Philidelphia Saving Fund Society in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4126
PY  - 1992
Y2  - July 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4126
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4126.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
George Alter
University of Michigan
E-Mail: altergc@umich.edu

Claudia Goldin
National Bureau of Economic Research
1050 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/613-1200
Fax: 617/613-1245
E-Mail: cgoldin@harvard.edu

Elyce Rotella
Indiana University
E-Mail: rotella@indiana.edu
AB  - We explore the savings behavior and saving rates of ordinary Americans through their accounts at the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society. the oldest mutual savings bank in the United States founded in 1816 to encourage thrift among the working poor. Our sample contains the 2.374 accounts opened in 1850. of which one-quarter were linked to the 1850 census manuscripts. Savings accounts were generally brief affairs; only 30 percent lasted more than 5 years. But median balances mounted to about three-quarters of annual income in about three to four years. Deposits and withdrawals were infrequent. but substantial. The median deposit was about 1 to 2 months of gross income whereas the median withdrawal represented about 2 to 3 months but occurred far less often. Account holders. then. did not generally use their accounts for the short-run fluctuations in income we suspect they experienced. Only female servants. as a group. used their accounts for life-cycle savings eventually amassing large nest eggs through steady but slow accumulation. Men often used their accounts to hold funds on route to acquiring physical property. Estimated saving rates range from a low of 12 percent to a more sensible one of 21 percent among only active accounts.
ER  -