Measurement of Saving, Investment, and Wealth

by Lipsey, Robert E.; Tice, Helen Stone; Conference on Research in Income and Wealth

• ISBN13: 9780226484686
• ISBN10: 0226484688
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1989-06-27
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

There is probably no concept other than saving for which U.S. official agencies issue annual estimates that differ by more than a third, as they have done for net household saving, or for which reputable scholars claim that the correct measure is close to ten times the officially published one. Yet despite agreement among economists and policymakers on the importance of this measure, huge inconsistencies persist. Contributors to this volume investigate ways to improve aggregate and sectoral saving and investment estimates and analyze microdata from recent household wealth surveys. They provide analyses of National Income and Product Account (NIPA) and Flow-of-Funds measures and of saving and survey-based wealth estimates. Conceptual and methodological questions are discussed regarding long-term trends in the U.S. wealth inequality, age-wealth profiles, pensions and wealth distribution, and biases in inferences about life-cycle changes in saving and wealth. Some new assessments are offered for investment in human and nonhuman capital, the government contribution to national wealth, NIPA personal and corporate saving, and banking imputation.

Author Biography

Robert E. Lipsey is professor of economics at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is also a research associate of the NBER and director of its New York office. Helen Stone Tice is an assistant to the director at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note

Introduction

Present NIPA Saving Measures: Their Characteristics and Limitations

Comment

Measuring Household Saving: Recent Experience from the Flow-of-Funds Perspective

Comment

Flow-of-Funds and National Income and Product Account Savings Estimates in Latin America

Comment

Comment

The Accumulation of Human and Nonhuman Capital, 1948-84

Comment

Government Saving, Capital Formation, and Wealth in the United States, 1947-85

Comment

The Theory and Measurement of the Nominal Output of Banks, Sectoral Rates of Savings, and Wealth in the National Accounts

Comment

Reply

World Payments Imbalances and U.S. Statistics

Comment

Year-Apart Estimates of Household Net Worth from the Survey of Income and Program Participation

Comment

Survey Estimates of Wealth: An Assessment of Quality

Comment

Using Panel Data to Assess the Bias in Cross-sectional Inferences of Life-Cycle Changes in the Level and Composition of Household Wealth Nancy

Comment

The Wealth of the Aged and Nonaged, 1984

Comment

Pension Wealth, Age-Wealth Profiles, and the Distribution of Net Worth

Comment

The Importance of Gifts and Inheritances among the Affluent

Comment

Long-Term Trends in U.S. Wealth Inequality: Methodological Issues and Results

Comment

List of Contributors

Author Index

Subject Index

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