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This chapter discusses the basic determinants of the generation of wealth and its distribution across households; it has four sections. Section 7.1 considers the life cycle motive as a basis of household saving behaviour, paying particular attention to the role played by the pension annuity system. Section 7.2 discusses the role of education in transmitting wealth between parents and children. Section 7.3 turns to the topic of macroeconomics and looks at how the rate of return is determined in the long term, thereby showing how the theoretical discussions in this book form a general equilibrium framework. Section 7.4 takes up the question of asset and related expectations––asset price fluctuation is considered one of the major causes of generation of huge wealth in the short term, but there are various conflicting dimensions to this problem.

This chapter examines the factors that influence the saving behavior of an individual. It suggests that the decision to save rather than to spend a portion of income is in effect a decision to consume in the future rather than in the present and that this intertemporal choice can be analyzed using a budget constraint and indifference curves relating to present and future consumption. Evidence from the US indicates that an increase in real interest rates reduces borrowing and it has a small but positive net effect on aggregate household saving. This chapter also provides several relevant computational exercises and solutions.

Low returns on financial assets and increasing longevity mean saving for retirement is becoming more challenging than it has been in the past. Generations retiring in the near term face increased longevity but have lived through periods with strong market returns boosting their assets, and many also have defined benefit plan entitlements. Younger generations, who also face increasing longevity, are unlikely to earn historical investment returns on their retirement portfolios, and few have traditional pensions. We model the likely outcomes for different cohorts under scenarios for savings behavior, investment returns, and longevity. While younger generations do face substantial challenges, we show that plausible courses of action involve increased contributions and delayed or partial retirement, which can provide reasonable income replacement rates in retirement. We map out the steps that the retirement industry (government, employers, and financial services providers) must take to support people in following these courses of action, such as providing more flexibility over social security.