A penny saved is a penny earned

I wanted to find out in which country one can save the most. I couldn't find an accurate study (OECD, WorldBank etc.) on this, so decided to do my own analysis.

Ex post facto: I recently came across "Local purchasing power". It is probably the most helpful (complex) data for this type of analysis. However I still like my calculation for its easiness and clarity.

There are two dominant parameters: salary (what goes in) and the cost living (what goes out).

For the first, using average monthly disposable salary is the best option; simply because it's after-tax. Taken from Numbeo.

There is no easy standard measure for the cost of living. I basically assumed that my monthly expense would be 300 BigMacs / month. BigMac prices are easily available on The Economist's BigMac Index.

I used 2014 data. All prices are in USD.

High Tech Export per Capita

While browsing through WorldBank Data, I found a very good country indicator: High Technology Exports. I have no idea how reliable it is; but it's data and thus should be analyzed.

As Nobel laureate Robert Solow and economist Trevor Swan showed in the 1950s, technological progress is the key to a country’s long-term increase in its material well-being. So, I also think comparing countries by looking at their "High Tech Export per Capita" would be a very good gauge to identify the real superpowers and estimate countries' future performance.

Here is the output of my analysis: