This paper studies the effects that borrowing constraints have on savings and growth and argues that, though they … increase savings, their effect on growth is ambiguous. Empirical evidence on the extent of borrowing constraints as well as … savings, investment, human capital accumulation and growth performance for industrialized countries is presented. A simple …

lower consumption and GDP growth. Consistent with a model of precautionary savings in the face of uncertainty, we find for a … panel of advanced economies that greater labor income uncertainty is significantly associated with higher household savings … precautionary savings motive …

incorporate the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty on private savings behavior. It is shown that the greater the uncertainty in … savings and, other things equal, the larger is the current account surplus. Empirical support for the model is found using …