Issues in the Measurement and Determinants of Business Saving

Abstract

This paper begins with a discussion of the measurement of business saving,with the conclusion that even "corrected" measures of business saving are quite inaccurate in the presence of inflation, leading to an overstatement of the recent decline in business saving. The remainder of the paper focuses on the more fundamental issue of why it should matter who saves. Beginning from their relevance proposition associated with the Modigliani-Miller theorem, we consider the channels through which taxation causes the identity of the saver to have real effects. Finally, we consider the relative efficiency of business versus personal savings incentives, in light of our results.