Savings behaviour in low-income countries

Abstract

The empirical literature on savings in low-income countries has exploited some remarkable data sets to shed new light on savings behaviour in the poor agricultural households that make up the majority of the population in such countries. A number of conclusions have emerged: (i) the degree of consumption smoothing over seasons within the year and across years, in response to very large income fluctuations, is higher than was supposed; (ii) the lack of complete insurance and credit markets, however, is manifest…