The aggregate saving indicator does not directly reflect changes in individuals' microeconomic behavior. From the official statistics' point of view, households choosebetween spending, which generates additional income and consumption in the economy, and setting money aside, which does not....

The paper investigates by means of cointegration analysis whether the recently observed low levels of private saving and the current account balance in the United States are worrisome in the sense that they cannot be sufficiently explained by determinants which performed well in the past. Stock...