Do private pension funds increase household consumption ? An empirical study

Private pension plans are now an important source of retirement income, especially in the United Kingdom and in the United States. They play an increasing role in the economy of most of the OECD countries. Therefore, we analyse the effect of pensions on private consumption. We focus on the estimation of a ECM consumption function in the case of the United States and the United Kingdom. It is shown that pension funds would have a negative impact on households’saving ratio. However, these estimations remain fragile, given the very limited number of observations avalaible. Some preliminary estimations on panels data are then implemented, showing no impact of pension funds on private consumption.ou