Precautionary Saving and Health Risk: Evidence from Italian Households Using a Time Series of Cross Sections

Abstract

In this paper we analyse the importance of precautionary saving in Italy. In contrast to previous studies, we focus on two contemporaneous sources of uncertainty, income and health expenditures, to explain the presence of precautionary saving. The major changes occurred in public health care policies from 1985 to 1996 have caused households to pay a larger share of their outof-the-pocket medical expenditures. We therefore expect consumers to react to this uncertainty by generating precautionary saving.Our results show strong support for the precautionary savinghypothesis as a response to health uncertainty.