We use the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a rather unique dataset with a long time dimension of panel … information on consumption, income and wealth, to structurally estimate a buffer-stock saving model. We exploit the information … contained in the joint dynamics of income, consumption and wealth to quantify the degree of insurance against income risk. The …

The ratio of consumption to total household wealth (i.e., tangible assets plus unobserved human wealth) is commonly … component in the consumption equation. The consumption-to-wealth ratio calculated from this model is much less persistent than …

-quarter of total household wealth in Europe provides further corroboration for this finding. …