The Saving Glut of the Rich

Mian, Atif R.; Straub, Ludwig; Sufi, Amir

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The Saving Glut of the Rich

NBER Working Paper No. w26941

67 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2020 Last revised: 11 Feb 2026

See all articles by Atif R. Mian

Atif R. Mian

Princeton University - Department of Economics; Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; NBER

Amir Sufi

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; NBER

Date Written: April 2020

Abstract

This paper develops a new unveiling methodology to trace distributional household saving through the financial system and applies it to tax records from 1963 to 2019. Since the 1980s, saving by the top 1% has surged, creating a saving glut of the rich comparable in scale to the global saving glut and equally influential in driving the demand for safe assets. Unveiling the financial sector reveals that this glut financed much of the rise in middle-class borrowing before 2008 and the expansion of federal debt thereafter. Our framework helps illustrate how rising inequality reshapes financial intermediation and debt dynamics.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Mian, Atif R. and Straub, Ludwig and Sufi, Amir, The Saving Glut of the Rich (April 2020). NBER Working Paper No. w26941, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3569406