Planned and Unplanned Bequests

We make the distinction between bequests that are planned as part of some lifetime optimization stemming from a bequest motive, and those that are unplanned and result when the date of death differs from what the consumer might forecast. Lifetime optimization should lead to a negative effect or no effect of the expected horizon on the size of the bequest, and to a negative relation between unexpectedly long life and the bequest. Using data on wealthy decedents and their parents, we form measures of the expected horizon based on parents' longevity. There is no relation between unexpectedly early or late death and the bequest, but a significant positive relation between the bequest and the length of the horizon. Several explanations for this unforeseen result are offered, including the inference that uncertainty about length of life is important in studying bequest behavior.

Empirical Study of Wealth Mobility

ij The research reported here was supported by funds granted to the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by the Department of 'Health, Education, and Welfare, pursurant to the provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1974. () 'Although much research has been done on the intragenerational distribution of income and wealth, much less work has been done on intergenerational effects; research in both aLeas is needed for a complete understanding of the subject.:In addition to the study ot factors that determine the size distribution of income and wealth, economists should also be interested in the degree of intergenerational mobility that is exhibited in an economy. To what extent is there "equal opportunity " or equal life chances for children from parents situated in dissimilar economic positions1 issue of mobility is distinct from the issue of equality. It should be clear that the For any degree of inequality we can have a relatively static society in which children always assume their parents' position or a highly mobile society,. one in which the position of the child is unrelated to his parents ' position. The degree of intergenerational mobility is determined by market, institutional and, some would say, biological forces (Taubman, 1976). The systems that provide education, care for children, distribute public expenditures and taxes, and transmit material inheritance, all influence mobility across generations. l This paper presents empirical estimates of the relationship between the material wealth held by parents and their children in the United States. The data comes from probate records and therefore records wealth-holding at a specific point in the lifecycle, i.e. at death though variation in age at death among the children is take

Changes in cohort wealth over a generation: perspectives gleaned from life tables and differential mortality

Summary in GermanSIGLEAvailable from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel C 156564 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman