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IFS Working Papers
August 1999 W99/19
Article
Risk pooling, precautionary saving and consumption growth
Type: IFS Working Papers
Authors: James Banks, Richard Blundell and Agar Brugiavini
ISSN: 1742-0415
Volume, issue, pages: 39 pp.
JEL classification: D12, D81, D91

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In this paper we model the evolution ofincome risk and consumption growth.We decompose the time series innovation of the income process intoits common and cohort-specific components. From these we compute conditional variances which are used as separate risk terms in a consumptiongrowthequation. U singalongtimeseriesofB ritishhouseholddatawe ndstrongevidenceofprecautionarysaving. Specically, afterallowing fordemographicand labourmarketstatus, there is an independent role for income risk in explaining consumption growth. R atherthanthecomponentthatis commonacross cohorts, however, it is thecohort-specicelementthatis important in determining changes in consumption growth.This result points to a failure of between-cohort insurance mechanisms.

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