of formal jobs offering fringe benefits, even if GDP growth is strong (La Porta and Shleifer 2014). In sum, these socioeconomic trends further emphasize the need to understand the patterns of wealth accumulation over the life cycle in Pakistan and, thus, the assets and resources available in old-age in Pakistan.

We find that Pakistani households accumulate significant net worth but overwhelmingly in the form of residential buildings: on average, nearly 80% of the wealth accumulated by age 60-65 is comprised of residential buildings. This proportion has increased slightly over the period of our sample, from 73.0% in 2001 to 81.9% in 2018. The fact that households primarily save in real estate and land signals that this is considered a safe investment, relative to other available options. For example, housing may be a way to store resources for the long run in a way that cannot easily be stolen or appropriated by other family members. It could also reflect a lack of access to other safe, high return, and trustworthy long-term saving instruments. Low financial literacy, numeracy, and familiarity with formal banking institutions can all create barriers to participation in other forms of saving. Pakistan has been much slower than other neighboring countries in expanding financial inclusion and the barriers to this must be addressed.

The ability for elderly individuals to extract income from housing wealth may be a key parameter to evaluate in future research. This can take multiple forms, including renting out, downsizing, sophisticated financial instruments such as reverse mortgages but also implicit intergenerational arrangements in which children support their elderly parents in exchange for lodging and real estate bequests. Each of these strategies can have different costs and well-being implications. These concerns are greater for women, particularly older women and widows, who have less agency within the household and in the society to begin with, due to social norms around inheritance practices. Consistent with improving living standards and expectations that family support may be less available than in the past, the proportion of 65-year-old heads with more than 5 years’ worth of consumption in net worth increased from 30% in 2001 to 50% in 2018. To the extent that pooling all wealth in housing is suboptimal, this pattern suggests a potential demand for long-term saving schemes designed for the informal sector.

While safe, housing is a relatively illiquid asset, which takes resources away from short-term consumption smoothing. According to Findex, only 3 percent of those aged 15 years and above in Pakistan report being able to rely on savings for emergency funds, while 49 percent say it is not possible to come up with emergency funds. The main source of emergency funds tends to be family or friends, according to 41 percent of the population aged 15 years and above; 25 percent report borrowing for medical expenditures. Policies that allow greater use of real estate assets as collateral to borrow against, through formal financial institutions, could in theory reduce the need for liquid precautionary savings, and free up resources to save for retirement. However, such initiatives may also encourage over-indebtedness and lead to evictions.

Lack of other safe, liquid forms of saving can also limit earning opportunities offered by self-employment. The self-employed tend to be older than informal wage workers but with similar levels of schooling. Almost half of the self-employed have no education. The older age of the self-employed might suggest that initial working years are spent acquiring start-up capital, as most of the self-employed enterprises are started using own capital (LSS Employer Survey 2014, Bossavie et al, forthcoming). According to the Findex surveys, only 11 percent of people aged 15 years and above borrow to start or expand a business.

Improving opportunities for safe long-term saving outside housing in the form of government-sponsored or subsidized old-age savings instruments could yield greater independence in old-age and reduce the burden on younger families. We find that average net worth accumulation accelerates midway through the working years, roughly around age forty. While some of this accumulation may reflect patterns in inheritances, we show that 19