Charles Horioka: Economist Specializing in Savings, Consumption and the Asian Economy

Education and early background

Horioka was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and later established his academic career primarily in Japan. He completed his undergraduate degree at Harvard University (B.A.) and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (Ph.D.). His training combined rigorous applied econometrics with an interest in issues of household behavior and national accounting that would shape his later empirical work.

Academic and research appointments

Over his career Horioka has held positions at several leading institutions. He has served as Research Professor at the Asian Growth Research Institute in Kitakyushu and taught at universities including Stanford, Columbia, Kyoto and Osaka. From 2013 to 2014 he held the Vea Family Professorship of Technology and Evolutionary Economics at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He is also a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and has served as a co‑editor of the International Economic Review.

Major research contributions

Horioka’s empirical work examines how households save and spend, how parents and children interact over transfers and bequests, and how national saving relates to domestic investment. His most cited contribution, coauthored with Martin Feldstein, is the 1980 article "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows" (Feldstein & Horioka), which documented a strong positive correlation between national saving rates and domestic investment rates across countries. That finding challenged expectations from perfectly open‑economy models and prompted extensive theoretical and empirical debate; the relationship is widely referred to as the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle.

Research themes, methods and regional focus

Horioka combines cross‑country regressions, household survey analysis, and institutional comparisons. He has applied these methods to economies in East and South Asia as well as to the United States, producing comparative studies of consumption smoothing, saving motives, and intergenerational support. His papers often explore how cultural norms, demographic change, public pension systems, and financial market structure affect saving behavior and capital allocation.

Selected works, awards and influence

• Key article: "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows" (with Martin Feldstein), Economic Journal, 1980 — origin of the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle (see paper).
• Empirical studies of household saving and bequests across Japan, the United States, China, India, Korea and other Asian countries.
• Edited volumes and policy‑oriented pieces on the Japanese economy and regional capital movements.

In recognition of his work, Horioka received the Nakahara Prize from the Japanese Economic Association in 2001 (Nakahara Prize). His research continues to influence studies of international capital mobility, pension reform, and the microeconomic foundations of national saving. For further institutional or biographical details, see profiles and faculty pages associated with his appointments (Stanford, Columbia, Kyoto, Osaka) and listings of his degrees (B.A., Ph.D.).