ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the deposits and withdrawals by Individual Development Accounts (IDA) participants in American Dream Demonstration (ADD). It presents new ideas about ways to measure saving. The chapter discusses the aspects of the normative question of what types of uses should be matched. It starts with a broad framework for thinking about the process of saving in terms of three stages: "putting in", "keeping in", and "taking out". The chapter highlights how the act of saving can be seen as moving resources through time. Based on this framework, several measures of saving— many of them new—are defined and then applied to IDAs in ADD. The chapter describes a system of measures of financial saving in subsidized accounts. The most basic measure of saving in subsidized accounts is participation; non-participants cannot save in subsidized accounts. The chapter summarizes the components of aggregate and per-participant saving and asset accumulation through IDAs in ADD.
