This paper simulates a gbuffer-stockh saving model of precautionary saving and estimates the parameters of the utility function by matching the simulated age-consumption profile with those observed in the micro-level data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) in Japan. Our...

The value of human capital wealth and its return process are important to quantify in order to study consumption behavior and portfolio allocation. This paper introduces a new approach to measure the value of an economy's total human capital wealth. By assuming that the consumption to wealth...

This study investigates the redistributive effect of the social security reform in urban China using the nationally representative urban household surveys in 1995 and 2002. The main findings are as follows. First, public pension is the main income for the elderly in urban China. Majority of...

This paper provides a new explanation for China's extremely low consumption-to-GDP ratio, highlighting the constraints of the "household registration system" (Hukou) on China's household consumption. Our baseline results show that the consumption of migrants without an urban Hukou is 30.7% lower...

This paper investigates whether the participation costs play an important role in explaining the households' limited stock market participation in Japan. In order to identify such costs, we focus on the difference of stock holding probability between two household groups whose financial literacy...

Using micro-level household data in the 2001 Comprehensive Survey of the Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, this paper examines how having a household member in need of long-term nursing care can result in welfare...

Japan's traditionally high household saving rate has declined substantially since the early 1990s. While this decline is often explained as a result of the rapid increase in the population share of the elderly who are dissaving, we argue that the cause is a decline in interest income triggered...

We relate household saving to pension reform, to explain the high household saving rates in urban China from a new perspective. We use the exogenous-policy induced-variation in pension wealth to explicitly estimate the impact of pension wealth on household saving, and obtain a significant offset...

This paper studies the extent to which the impact on consumer spending differs between temporary and permanent, as well as anticipated and unanticipated tax changes. To discriminate between them, we use institutional information such as legal distinction between temporary and permanent tax...

Recently, Japanese public pension scheme has been discussed more often, especially about how to finance the scheme. It is possible to finance the scheme by wage-proportional contribution or by Value-Added-Tax, but the allocation may be different depending on the financial method. I find that an...