We estimate the relationship between GDP per capita growth and the growth rate of the national saving rate using a panel of 130 countries over the period 1960–2017. We find that GDP per capita growth increases (decreases) the growth rate of the national saving rate in poor countries (rich countries), and a higher credit-to-GDP ratio decreases the national saving rate as well as the income elasticity of the national saving rate. We develop a model with a credit constraint to explain the growth-saving relationship by the saving behavior of entrepreneurs at both the intensive and extensive margins. We further present supporting evidence for our theoretical findings by utilizing cross-country time series data of the number of new businesses registered and the corporate saving rate.

This paper characterizes the saving rate in the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model analytically with a general production function when there exist both exogenous and endogenous growth. It points out conditions involving the share of capital and the elasticities of factor and intertemporal substitution under which the saving rate path to its steady-state value exhibits overshooting or undershooting or is monotonic. Simulations illustrate these interesting dynamics. The paper also identifies the general class of production functions that render the saving rate constant along the entire transition path and hence make the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model isomorphic to that of Solow and Swan.