TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bloom,David E.
AU  - Canning,David
AU  - Graham,Bryan
TI  - Longevity and Life Cycle Savings
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8808
PY  - 2002
Y2  - February 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8808
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8808.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David E. Bloom
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Global Health and Population
665 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617/432-0866
Fax: 617/432-6733
E-Mail: dbloom@hsph.harvard.edu

David Canning
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Global Health and Population
665 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617/432-6336
Fax: 617/566-0365
E-Mail: dcanning@hsph.harvard.edu

Bryan S. Graham
University of California - Berkeley
508-1 Evans Hall #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880
Tel: (510) 642 4752
E-Mail: bgraham@econ.berkeley.edu
AB  - We add health and longevity to a standard model of life cycle saving and show that, under plausible assumptions, increases in longevity lead to higher savings rates at every age, even when retirement is endogenous. In a stable population these higher savings rates are offset by increased old age dependency, but during the disequilibrium phase, when longevity is rising, the effect on aggregate savings rates can be substantial. Our results explain the boom in savings in East Asia during 1950-90 as a combination of rising life expectancy and falling youth dependency, though they predict that savings in the region will return to more normal levels as populations age. We also find that falling life expectancies in Africa are associated with declining savings rates.
ER  -