Domestic savings, public savings and expenditures on consumer durable goods in Argentina

This paper shows that when aspects related to public savings and consumer durables are explicitly measured, there is a considerable reduction in the recent cycle of savings in Argentina. Both public savings and investment are responsible for sharp changes in domestic savings between decades, while a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: López Murphy, Ricardo
Other Authors: Navajas, Fernando
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Science B.V
Series:Journal of Development Economics, vol. 57, no. 1 (October 1998), pp. 97-116
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Description
Summary:This paper shows that when aspects related to public savings and consumer durables are explicitly measured, there is a considerable reduction in the recent cycle of savings in Argentina. Both public savings and investment are responsible for sharp changes in domestic savings between decades, while a great deal of the cycle in private savings is explained by decisions on consumer durables. An examination of the saving-investment correlation, implicit in an econometric error correction model, shows a drop over time in both the short run correlation and the speed of correction of any difference between both aggregates. However, a gap between savings and investment in Argentina is not a long-term phenomenon, as it is implied in the data and considering recent observations. Finally, an econometric analysis of expenditures on durables suggests that both an intertemporal optimization response by economic agents to new economic conditions as well as elements of exaggerated optimism and pessimism might explain the sharp cycle in the consumer durables spending that is behind the corresponding cycle in private savings.
ISSN:0304-3878