Tax subsidies and household saving: Evidence from Canada

Abstract

Targeted tax-based saving incentives can be a powerful tool for promoting household and national saving. This study examines the effect of the cancellation of the Registered Home Ownership Savings Plan (RHOSP), a Canadian tax-subsidized saving program, on household saving. The cancellation provides exogenous variation in eligibility for the subsidy that is uncorrelated with household-specific heterogeneity in saving behavior. The empirical analysis suggests that the subsidy had a substantial impact on saving: each dollar contributed to the program represented 56-93 and 20-57 cents of new household and national saving, respectively.