The Effect of Household Characteristics on Saving Behaviour and the Theory of Savings in Japan.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the household saving functions based on cross-section data which contain fruitful informations of individual observations. The paper also attempts to test various theories of saving behaviors empirically such as life-cycle saving hypothesis, or permanent income hypothesis, or several other theories. Since the data contain several useful variables which have not been used previously, particular attention is paid to the influence of those household characteristics on saving behavior.