Italian households� opinions on the difficulty of saving

The paper investigates the opinions of Italian families on the advisability and the possibility of saving. The analysis was carried out using the monthly micro-data underlying the Italian consumer survey conducted by Isae up to 2010 and by Istat thereafter. The results show that in recent years there has been a sharp increase in the proportion of households that consider it appropriate to save. This appears to be closely related to their expectations about the cyclical situation, in particular unemployment, pointing to a strengthening of the precautionary motive. By contrast, since the second half of the last decade only a small number of households state that they have actually been able to save. This also seems to be linked to the structural characteristics of the household. The growing gap between the advisability and the possibility of saving is greater for the elderly and, among young people, for those living alone, renting their accommodation and working under a fixed-term employment contract. The discrepancy is greater for households that reside in the larger municipalities.