ABSTRACT
Saving or dissaving during a period of time is a product of several decisions of varying significance, such as whether to buy a cheap or expensive product, whether to spend now or later, and whether to borrow or save. Saving is a result of continuous intertemporal decisions, where outcomes (payments and consumption of goods) appear at different points in time. When studying saving we have to assume that consumers have some awareness of their overall economic situation when they make spending or saving decisions and also some expectations about their future economic situation. We must also assume that they make a judgment of the consequences of the decisions and that some factors will play a part across the majority of these decisions. Studies of saving involve identifying such factors. Only these factors will serve as useful determinants and predictors of saving over extended periods and have a potential for being useful for analyses at the aggregate level.
