The Saving Behaviour of Two Person Households: Evidence from Dutch Panel Data

43 Pages Posted: 11 Nov 2003

See all articles by Rob Euwals

Rob Euwals

CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Axel H. Börsch-Supan

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA)

Angelika Eymann

University of Mannheim - Department of Economics

Date Written: December 2000

Abstract

As wives generally are younger than their husbands, and as they also have a higher life expectancy, wives generally have larger incentives to save for old age than their husbands. This paper analyses the household members' attitudes towards saving for old age, and the relation with the household saving and portfolio choice behaviour. Based on a panel of two-person households (e.g. with a husband and a wife) from the Dutch CentER Savings Survey, we find that wives find saving for old age more important than their husbands. In a special high-income subsample we find that for this group the household members find saving for old age equally important. The major determinant of both household members' attitudes is the husband's mandatory pension rights. Both household members' attitude relate to the probability of holding annuity and endowment insurances, while only the husband's attitude relates to the probability of holding stocks. Concerning discretionary household wealth we find evidence for an impact of the husband's attitude, but no evidence for an impact of the wife?s attitude.

Keywords: Savings, pensions, intra-household behaviour

JEL Classification: C33, C35, D19, D91

Suggested Citation

Euwals, Rob and Börsch-Supan, Axel H. and Eymann, Angelika, The Saving Behaviour of Two Person Households: Evidence from Dutch Panel Data (December 2000). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=264810 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.264810

Rob Euwals (Contact Author)

CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Research ( email )

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Netherlands
+31 70 33 83 438 (Phone)
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IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
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Germany
+49 228 3894 302 (Phone)
+49 228 3894 210 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Axel H. Börsch-Supan

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) ( email )

Amalienstrasse 33
Munich, 80799
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.mea.mpisoc.mpg.de

Angelika Eymann

University of Mannheim - Department of Economics

D-68131 Mannheim
Germany

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