This paper studies the main determinants of the sharp decline in Colombia’s private saving rate which accompanied the steep deterioration of the country’s external current account deficit in the 1990s. The paper rejects current arguments pointing to a consumption boom and corporate behavior...

This paper analyzes anew the relationship between taxation and the household saving rate. On the basis of standard savings and tax revenue data from, it provides compelling and robust empirical evidence of a powerful impact of taxes on household savings. In particular, income taxes are shown to...

The previous literature points to a high correlation between domestic rates of investment and savings among OECD countries. Some take this as evidence of limited financial integration in the industrialized world. This paper presents new empirical results, based on an extended sample of...

The Chinese government has recently focused on the need to increase consumption to rebalance the economy. A widely held view is that despite China''s remarkably high growth, the share of consumption in total expenditure has been low and declining due to high and rising saving rate of Chinese...

This chapter analyses various reasons for global imbalances and ways to tackle these issues. Current account balances reflect a plethora of macroeconomic and financial mechanisms. The overall assessment is that the pre-crisis policy advice and the conclusions from the Multilateral Consultations...