Saving, Interest Rates and Finite Horizons

We study the heterogeneity of interest rate effects on private saving across the age dimension. Taking income and substitution effects as given, we illustrate how in a simple life cycle model, older individuals respond less to interest rate changes than younger ones. This result is driven by the fact that older individuals have a shorter planning horizon, and consequently a lower and less interest sensitive present discounted value of future earnings. However, estimating a dynamic error components model on a global panel of countries spanning the period 1995–2014, we find that there is no evidence for there being a different interest rate effect for countries with higher old age dependency ratios. Our results stand in contrast to recent studies that find effects which are consistent with the theory.