Household accounts, mental accounts, and savings behaviour: Same old economics rediscovered?

Examines the implications for savings behavior of the nonfungibility of household wealth. The structures of and the relationship between mental accounts and household accounts are discussed, and these descriptions of household financial wealth are compared with the economist's life-cycle model. The argument is illustrated from Dutch questionnaire and interview material; the former focuses on saving of bonuses and of capital gains and dividends. Tentative conclusions are drawn related to households' capital accounts and savings, and their relationship with other accounting schemas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).