Download or read book Income Uncertainty, Precautionary Saving, and Social Insurance written by Matthew Joyce and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our estimates indicate that 24% of net wealth is attributed to precautionary savings in Australia. Moreover, across the income distribution, we find that low-income households have the highest fraction of their wealth accumulation explained by precautionary motives. These results for Australia are at odds with the estimates of precautionary wealth in the United States where related studies find that low-income households hold low levels of precautionary savings. Using a simple theoretical model, we show that differences in means-tested social insurance programs can rationalize these large differences in our empirical results.