Assessing the Effectiveness of Saving Incentives PDF Download

Author: R. Glenn Hubbard
Publisher: A E I Press
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
In this paper, we argue that there is more to be learned from recent research on the effectiveness of targeted saving incentives than is suggested by the wide variation in empirical estimates. First, we conclude that characterizations of saving appear to stimulate moderate amounts of new saving. Second, we suggest a cost-benefit approach to ask: What is the incremental gain in capital accumulation per dollar of foregone revenue? We find that for quite conservative measures of the saving impacts of IRAs or 401(k)s, the incremental gains in capital accumulation per dollar of lost revenue are large.

Author: Essam Yassin Mohammed
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135006636
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Marine and coastal resources provide millions of people with their livelihoods, such as fishing and tourism, and a range of critical additional ‘ecosystem services’, from biodiversity and culture to carbon storage and flood protection. Yet across the world, these resources are fast-diminishing under the weight of pollution, land clearance, coastal development, overfishing, natural disasters and climate change. This book shows how economic instruments can be used to incentivize the conservation of marine and coastal resources. It is shown that traditional approaches to halt the decline focus on regulating against destructive practices, but to little effect. A more successful strategy could be to establish schemes such as payments for ecosystem services (PES), or incorporate an element of financial incentives into existing regulatory mechanisms. Examples, both terrestrial and marine, from across the world suggest that PES can work to protect both livelihoods and environments. But to succeed, it is shown that these schemes must be underpinned by robust research, clear property rights, sound governance structures, equitable benefit sharing, and sustainable finance. Case studies are included from south and east Asia, Latin America, Africa and Australia. The book explores the prospects and challenges, and draws lessons from PES and PES-like programmes from across the globe.

Author: Lowell E. Baier
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538139391
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Winner, Independent Press Award - Conservation/Green, 2021 The only hope for successful conservation of America’s threatened, endangered, and at-risk wildlife is through voluntary, cooperative partnerships that focus on private land, where over 75% of at-risk species can be found. Private landowners form the bedrock of these partnerships, and they have a long history of rising to meet the challenge of conservation. But they can’t do it alone. This book is a guide for private landowners who want to conserve wildlife. Whether engaged in farming, ranching, forestry, mining, energy development, or another business, private working lands all have value as wildlife habitat, with the proper management and financial support. This book provides landowners and their partners with a roadmap to achieve conservation compatible with their financial and personal goals. This book introduces the art and language of land management planning as well as regulatory compliance with laws such as the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It categorizes and explains the tools used by wildlife professionals to implement conservation on private lands. Moreover it documents the multitude of federal, state, local, and private opportunities for landowners to find financial and technical assistance in managing wildlife, from working with a local NGO to accessing the $6 billion per year available through the federal Farm Bill.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Saving is the portion of national output that is not consumed and represents resources that can be used to increase, replace, or improve the nation's capital stock. The U.S. net national saving rate reached a post-war peak of 12.4% in 1965 and has then trended downward since to a low of 0.8% in 2005. Many analysts claim that saving is too low. Among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the United States has the third lowest saving rate. Survey evidence suggests that people know why they should save, but many don't save, especially lower-income individuals and families. Several reasons have been offered to explain the declining personal saving rate and the relatively high proportion of individuals and families that do not save. Economic reasons start from the premise that individuals and families are rational and make optimal decisions about consumption and saving throughout the life course. Low saving rates are then explained by economic disincentives induced by government policy or by life cycle changes in the propensity to save. Behavioral reasons start from the premise that individuals and families do not always make optimal decisions regarding consumption and saving. The government offers tax incentives to individuals and families to save. The empirical evidence on the relationship of tax incentives to the saving rate mostly comes from examinations of traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) plans. The reported results are mixed, but generally indicate small effects. Be that as it may, the tax incentives tend to benefit higher-income individuals and families to a much greater extent than lower-income individuals and families. The primary reasons are (1) higher-income individuals are much more likely to save, and (2) higher-income individuals face higher marginal tax rates and benefit more from sheltering income from taxation. Furthermore, the tax revenue loss for these incentives lower public saving by reducing the budget surplus or increasing the budget deficit. For FY2006, these tax incentives are estimated to cost the U.S. Treasury $125.6 billion in forgone tax revenues -- almost 40% of the estimated FY2006 budget deficit. The Bush Administration and the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform have advocated expanding tax incentives as the primary policy to encourage personal saving. Research has shown that personal saving has been fairly unresponsive to tax incentives, however, and such incentives may substantially decrease public saving (that is, increase the budget deficit). The long-term net effect on national saving and economic growth is likely negative. This report contains historical data and will not be updated.

Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264306927
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Are tax incentives the best way to encourage people to save for retirement? This publication assesses whether countries can improve the design of financial incentives to promote savings for retirement. After describing how different countries design financial incentives to promote savings for ...

Author: Thomas L. Hungerford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This report examines why individuals and households save or don’t save, and the effectiveness of the various incentives and inducements in increasing personal and national saving.

Author: Lyman T. Randolph
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781607413578
Category : Finance, Personal
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Raising the share of income saved is a frequent aim of public policy. That may be particularly apparent in debates about the size of the federal budget deficit, but concerns about the low household saving rate have also prompted policymakers to consider ways to encourage individuals to save more. How much individuals save will directly affect their future economic well-being. This book presents standard economic analysis of the macroeconomic effects of raising savings. An increase in saving means a reduction in spending. In the short run, that is likely to result in slower economic growth than would otherwise have been the case. When the saving rate rises, demand for financial assets rises as well. This book also looks at savings incentives and Social Security, and why the household savings rate is low. From a macroeconomic perspective, what matters is that saving, whether from the household, business or public sector is channelled into investments which increase the capital stock, raise productivity and add to economic growth. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Author: Esther Duflo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Individual retirement accounts
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
"This paper analyzes the effects of a large randomized field experiment carried out with H&R Block, offering matching incentives for IRA contributions at the time of tax preparation. About 14,000 H&R Block clients, across 60 offices in predominantly low- and middle-income neighborhoods in St. Louis, were randomly offered a 20 percent match on IRA contributions, a 50 percent match, or no match (the control group). The evaluation generates two main findings. First, higher match rates significantly raise IRA participation and contributions. Take-up rates were 3 percent for the control group, 8 percent in the 20 percent match group, and 14 percent in the 50 percent match group. Average IRA contributions (including non-contributors, excluding the match) for the 20 percent and 50 percent match groups were 4 and 7 times higher than in the control group, respectively. Second, several additional findings are inconsistent with the full information, rational-saver model. In particular, we find much more modest effects on take-up and amounts contributed from the existing Saver's Credit, which provides an effective match for retirement saving contributions through the tax code; we suspect that the differences may reflect the complexity of the Saver's Credit as enacted, and the way in which its effective match is presented. Taken together, our results suggest that the combination of a clear and understandable match for saving, easily accessible savings vehicles, the opportunity to use part of an income tax refund to save, and professional assistance could generate a significant increase in contributions to retirement accounts, including among middle- and low-income households"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.

Author: James M. Poterba
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226676293
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The declining U.S. national saving rate has prompted economists and policymakers to ask, should the federal government encourage household saving, and if so, through which policies? In order to better understand saving programs, this volume provides a systematic and detailed description of saving policies in the G-7 industrialized nations: the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Each of the seven chapters focuses on one country and addresses a core set of topics: types of accumulated household savings and debt; tax policies toward capital income; saving in the form of public and private pensions, including Social Security and similar programs; saving programs that receive special tax treatment; and saving through insurance. This detailed summary of the saving incentives of the G-7 nations will be an invaluable reference for policymakers and academics interested in personal saving behavior.

Author: William G. Gale
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
American Saving Rates have recently fallen to their lowest levels since 1950. After averaging roughly 8 percent in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the net national saving rate fell to about 4.5 percent in the 1980s and has fallen below 2 percent since 1990. The personal saving rate has also declined, from an average of 7 percent between 1950 and 1980 to an average of 4.6 percent since 1990. These declines have raised concerns that the economy may be unable to finance investment and sustain growth over the long run and that a significant fraction of the baby-boom generation may not be saving adequately for retirement.