US ‘excess savings’ are not excessive by Florin Bilbiie, Gauti Eggertsson, Giorgio Primiceri published by VOXEU (3/2021).
How the US economy will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic hinges in part on what will happen to the large amount of ‘excess savings’ that US households have accumulated since last March. This column argues that, in fact, these savings are not that excessive when considered against the backdrop of the unprecedented government interventions adopted over the past year in support of households, and that they are unlikely to generate a surge in demand post-pandemic.
