International differences in saving rates and the life cycle hypothesis : A comment

In a recent paper, John Graham (1987) has argued that the life cycle approach. performs rather well in accounting for intercountry differences in household saving rates so that the negative evidence sometimes reported i s not warranted. This comment presents pieces of evidence against this view. Some new evidence from a somewhat larger data set casts considerable doubt on the ability of the conventional life cycle and demographic variables to explain intercountry. differences in household saving rates. Graham's results, though taken at face value, are robust neither to data sample nor to time period.