The "Mother of All Puzzles" at thirty: a meta-analysis

Christophe Tavéra (1) , Jean-Christophe Poutineau (1) , Jean-Sébastien Pentecôte (1) , Isabelle Cadoret-David (1) , Arthur Charpentier (1) , Chantal Guéguen (1) , Marilyne Huchet (2) , Julien Licheron (1) , Guillaume L'Oeillet (1) , Nathalie Payelle (1) , Sébastien Pommier (1)

1 CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management
2 SMART-LERECO - Structures et Marché Agricoles, Ressources et Territoires

This paper provides a meta-analysis of 1651 point estimates of Feldstein and Horioka saving retention coefficient from 49 peer-reviewed papers published over three decades. We get two main results. First, correcting for publication bias, we find a consistent underlying coefficient lying between 0.56 and 0.67 for studies using the original paper. Second, heterogeneity reported in the estimates of the Feldstein and Horioka can be explained by a few main factors. In particular, we find evidence that the saving retention coefficient is systematically underestimated with models written in first difference, models using the saving ratio or the current account ratio as the dependent variable instead of the investment ratio, and models including indicators of the public deficit or indicators of the country size as additional explanatory variables.

Keywords: Meta-analysis; saving-investment correlation; capital mobility; Feldstein-Horioka coefficient

Domains: Economics and Finance; Business administration

Christophe Tavéra, Jean-Christophe Poutineau, Jean-Sébastien Pentecôte, Isabelle Cadoret-David, Arthur Charpentier, et al.. The "Mother of All Puzzles" at thirty: a meta-analysis. International Economics, 2015, 141, pp.80-96. ⟨10.1016/j.inteco.2015.01.001⟩. ⟨halshs-01112088⟩