Households' saving mobility in Poland

In this paper we examine the mobility of Polish households with regard to saving rates during the years 2007-2010 and compare it with the households’ saving mobility during the years 1997-2000. The analysis for 2007-2010 is based on the household budget panel data from three panels of 15,000 of Polish households selected by authors for years 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 from the Household Budget Surveys. We use the Markov mobility matrix and estimate the long-term ergodic distribution of households according to the saving rates. Our results show that the long term households’ distribution reveals a tendency towards polarization of households with regard to saving rates. Comparing the results for 2007-2010 with the authors’ previous research on the households’ saving mobility for a decade earlier during 1997-2000, we prove that between the years 1997-2000 and 2007-2010 the long term change in the distribution of households was asymmetrical toward the highest saving rate groups. This helps to explain why Polish households could maintain positive and rising savings during the highly uncertain period of the financial crisis in 2007-2010.