National Saving in Canada and the United States, 1926 to 2011

This paper examines the composition of Canadian and United States gross national saving for a period spanning more than 80 years, using time series from the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the United States and a newly created dataset for Canada. The paper tracks short-term, year-to-year fluctuations, cyclical fluctuations and long-term compositional changes. It illustrates a substantial degree of national saving reallocation across sectors, annually and across business cycles. The national saving rate is more stable than sector saving rates, implying that sectoral changes have been largely offsetting.