Pension funds and national saving

"Murphy and Musalem conduct an empirical study of the effect of the accumulation of pension fund financial assets on national saving using a panel of 43 industrial and developing countries. The authors find evidence suggesting that the accumulation of pension fund financial assets might increase national saving when these funds are the result of a mandatory pension program. By contrast, national saving might be unaffected when pension funds are the result of a public program implemented to foster voluntary pension saving. This paper is a product of the Human Development Group, Middle East and North Africa Region. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project "Contractual Savings Institutions and National Saving."--World Bank web site.