The late 1980s saw a dramatic fall in personal saving rates in Britain and the United States which attracted the attention of academics and policymakers alike. The period was also marked by a number of important structural changes, any or all of which could have had an impact on personal saving...

The Canadian federal tax reform of 1988 replaced a spousal tax exemption with a non-refundable tax credit. This reduced the'jointness'of the tax system: after the reform, secondary earners'effective'first dollar'marginal tax rates no longer depended on the marginal tax rates of their spouses. In...