Why Do Europeans Save? Micro‐Evidence From the Household Finance and Consumption Survey
利用欧洲央行家庭金融与消费调查数据，发现按储蓄者比例排序时预防性动机最重要，但考虑数量重要性时退休动机最重要，且社会保障慷慨程度影响各动机的重要性。
ABSTRACT We analyze the saving motives of European households using micro‐data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, which is conducted by the European Central Bank. We find that the rank ordering of saving motives differs greatly depending on what criterion is used to rank them. We find that the precautionary motive is the most important saving motive of European households when the proportion of households saving for each motive is used as the criterion to rank them, but that the retirement motive is the most important saving motive of European households if the quantitative importance of each motive is taken into account. Moreover, the generosity of social safety nets seems to affect the importance of individual saving motives, with saving for the retirement motive being less important in countries with generous public pension benefits and saving for the precautionary motive being less important in countries with generous public health systems.