Government Intervention And National Saving Rate

The level of savings has always been a hot issue of concern to the academic community.Throughout the world,on the one hand,Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have experienced sustained low savings rates since the mid-1990 s.For example,the United States' total savings accounted for 21.3% of GDP,and the United Kingdom accounted for 19%.On the one hand,East Asian countries such as China,Singapore and Malaysia have maintained a high savings rate.The three countries' total savings accounted for 51.9%,53.1% and 39.8% respectively.Why are there so big differences in savings rates in different countries? The existing literature is explained from the perspectives of economic growth,financial development,population structure,social security,interest rates,real estate prices,education,early famine experiences,and trade policies.However,most of these studies have focused on individual countries or a small number of listed companies and have not received generally convincing conclusions.This paper attempts to provide more evidence for the study of the savings rate of a country from the perspective of government intervention.We use panel data from 80 countries around the world in 1995-2014 and World Bank corporate survey data for 2009 and 2013 to focus on the impact of government intervention on a country's savings rate.The study found that government intervention has a significant role in promoting the national savings rate.As the degree of government intervention increases,the national savings rate of a country gradually increases.After overcoming the impact of government intervention on financial development and economic development,the national savings rate is indirectly affected.This conclusion remains stable.Quantile regression found that with the increase in the national saving rate quantile,the positive impact of government intervention on the national saving rate has the characteristics of“U-shaped”that first declines and then rises.Dynamic panel regression found that there is a significant positive correlation between government intervention and savings rate in a country.In low-income countries,middle-income countries,and high-income countries,the impact of government intervention on the savings rate first rises and then falls.Further research on the impact of government intervention on the micro-enterprise savings rate found that the greater the degree of government intervention,the higher the corporate savings rate,especially for small and medium-sized enterprises,the role of government intervention is more significant.The mediating effect test on the impact mechanism found that credit constraints and uncertainty are two effective channels for government intervention to affect corporatesavings rate.For large enterprises,government intervention significantly increases the credit constraints and uncertainty of SMEs.