DID AMERICANS EXPECTATIONS OF NUCLEAR-WAR REDUCE THEIR SAVINGS

We test a rational-actor model predicting individuals' savings behavio r as, in part, a result of their expectations of war. To do so we anal yze the effect on savings of a newly compiled and cleaned survey time- series of the American public's expectations of nuclear war, and a pre viously employed measure of elite expectations from the Bulletin of At omic Scientists. An econometric time-series analysis shows a significa nt negative impact of war expectations on savings in much of the 1948- 1993 era.