The supply of saving and the accumulation of capital are at the core of economic life and of economic analysis. In an awareness of the crucial role of saving and investment activity in the wealth and welfare of nations and their deep relationship with money, credit markets and financial intermediation, central banks closely monitor the evolution of saving, pay great attention to the analysis of saving decisions and act in order to preserve the purchasing power of accumulated assets.

This book, Saving and the Accumulation of Wealth. Essays on Italian Household and Government Saving Behavior, presents the results of a research project on saving promoted by the Bank of Italy and carried out by members of its Research Department in cooperation with economists from other institutions. The project was launched at the end of 1989, when policy–makers and international organizations were beginning to acknowledge the possibility that the decline in saving rates experienced by most OECD countries over the previous decade might represent a serious obstacle to the financing of investment, the more so at a time when the pressing need for economic reform in East European countries was anticipated to raise strong demands on available funds.