Saving Behaviour of the Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the UK: Evidence from Panel Data

The fact that members of an immigrant community may have different demographic characteristics, or may have different tastes, to the indigenous population, may manifest itself in differences in saving behaviour. In addition, depending on their ethnic background, there could be differences among the immigrants themselves. Using household level panel data for the UK, this paper analyzes the saving behaviour of the immigrants of different ethnicities vis a vis the natives. Our estimation results provide evidence of diverse saving behaviour among British households, which depends on both immigration status as well as ethnic background. Decomposition analysis indicates that these differences are primarily attributable to unobservable rather than to the differences in observed characteristics.