The Impact of Social Security Contributions on Savings: an Analysis of Ger German Households by Category Using Flexible Econometric Forms

We Use a Conventional Model of Household Savings and Show That Its Econometric Specification Has a Crucial Effect on the Results, Notably on the Estimates of the Influence of Taxes and Social Security Contributions on Savings. Econometric Issues Include the Functional Form of the Equation, the Presence of Heteroskedasticity in the Residuals As Well As the Specification of an Autocorrelation Function That Represents Imitation Or Distanciation Among Households Belonging to the Same Category. the Formulation of the Autocorrelation Function Uses the Notion of Directly Ordered Data. Five Categories of German Households Are Analyzed.