The Investing–Saving Relationship Debate Between Opposing Views: A Panel Analysis Across Main Economic Regions

This paper focuses on an empirical analysis of the relationship between investing and saving, taking into account various economic regions. The economic aggregates are selected following the International Monetary Fund (IMF) standard classification. The investigation is developed within the theoretical frameworks proposed by the debate between the mainstream neoclassical school of thought and the post-Keynesian school. Our approach differs from other empirical works on the subject in that we apply innovative Granger non-causality panel tests to four datasets covering a wide range of countries over the period 1980 to 2024. This is the very first time these advanced panel tests have been applied to such data. The information is valuable for defining macroeconomic policy and supporting potential credibility of one theory over another in the debate. Our empirical results are coherent with the post-Keynesian interpretation of the relationship between the variables when applied to an international context in which trade and capital movements are liberalized.