Does Population Aging Lower Aggregate Saving? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

By James Wabenga Yango Panel regressions and calibrated life-cycle models have studied the effect of population aging on aggregate saving along separate lines, on partly overlapping samples. This systematic review and meta-analysis pools both under a single protocol. A search of five bibliographic databases identified 36 eligible studies, 33 of which yield estimates that can be placed on a common scale, each counted once. Random-effects pooling gives a decline of 0.56 percentage points in the saving rate per percentage point...