{"title":"The Trickling Up of Excess Savings","authors":"Adrien Auclert, Matthew Rognlie, Ludwig Straub","doi":"10.1257/pandp.20231027","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We provide a simple framework connecting the distribution of excess savings across households to the dynamics of aggregate demand. Deficit-financed fiscal transfers generate excess savings. The poorest households with the highest marginal propensities to consume (MPCs) spend down their excess savings the fastest, increasing other households' incomes and their excess savings. This leads to a long-lasting increase in aggregate demand until, ultimately, excess savings have “trickled up” to the richest savers with the lowest MPCs, raising wealth inequality.","PeriodicalId":72114,"journal":{"name":"AEA papers and proceedings. American Economic Association","volume":"149 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AEA papers and proceedings. American Economic Association","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20231027","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We provide a simple framework connecting the distribution of excess savings across households to the dynamics of aggregate demand. Deficit-financed fiscal transfers generate excess savings. The poorest households with the highest marginal propensities to consume (MPCs) spend down their excess savings the fastest, increasing other households' incomes and their excess savings. This leads to a long-lasting increase in aggregate demand until, ultimately, excess savings have “trickled up” to the richest savers with the lowest MPCs, raising wealth inequality.