Do stock and home ownership influence US personal savings?

Notes with concern the current negative rate of personal saving in the USA, reviews previous research on factors affecting savings and explores the interrelationships between personal savings and the returns on stock and family homes. Develops a mathematical model and applies it to 1980‐2000 data using causality tests, cointegration and error‐correction models. Finds a significant, negative causal relationship from stock returns to savings and a possible positive causal relationship from returns on homes, although the latter was not supported by tri‐variate analysis. Concludes that changes in a household’s stock returns are adjusted through changes in savings.