Working Papers,
National Institute of Economic Research

Abstract: Uncertainty concerning future income lowers consumption. This is often called the precautionary demand for savings. In this paper the existence of precautionary saving is investigated using Swedish data for the years 1973-1992. As there are no variables for consumers' uncertainty we use proxies. Assuming different underlying distributions of attitudinal data we have a set of variance series. Including the proxies in different specifications of the consumption function, indication of precautionary saving can be found. No uncertainty would raise consumption by 4.9%.

Keywords: Precautionary saving; consumption; uncertainty; econometric modelling; cointegration.

JEL-codes: C32; E21

26 pages, December 1, 1997

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