Top Incomes and National Savings

The relationship between income inequality and national savings is theoretically ambiguous, and past empirical studies have delivered mixed results. We revisit the question using a newly available source of data on inequality: the income share of the richest 10 percent and the richest 1 percent. Combining this with historical data on national savings rates, we are able to investigate the relationship for 11 developed countries over the period 1921–2002. We find no consistent relationship between lagged top income shares and current savings rates, and our standard errors are small enough that we are able to reject more than modest effects in either direction. We view this as suggesting that inequality at the top end of the distribution is not a major driver of national savings rates.收入不平等（income inequality）与国民储蓄（national savings）之间的理论关系尚无定论，过往实证研究（empirical studies）的结论也莫衷一是。本研究采用最新可得的不平等数据集——最富有的10%人口与1%人口的收入占比，重新探讨这一研究议题。将该数据与国民储蓄率（national savings rates）的历史数据相结合后，我们得以针对1921年至2002年间的11个发达国家，就二者间的关联展开实证检验。研究结果显示，滞后一期最高收入占比（lagged top income shares）与当期国民储蓄率之间并无稳定关联；且我们得到的标准误（standard errors）足够小，足以否定二者间在任一方向上存在中等程度以上影响的可能。据此我们认为，收入分配顶端的不平等并非国民储蓄率的主要驱动因素。