25. Mai 2016

SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

Gifts and Inheritances: How do They Shape the Wealth Distribution

Termin

25. Mai 2016
12:30 - 13:30

Ort

Eleanor-Dulles-Raum
DIW Berlin im Quartier 110
Room 5.2.010
Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße 58
10117 Berlin

Sprecher*innen

Marten von Werder (Freie Universität Berlin)

Using Data from the Socio-Economic Panel, I estimate the impact of intergenerational transfers on the level and the inequality of wealth. I particularly focus on the propensity of households to save from gifts and inheritances: While many studies on wealth inequality assume that these transfers are fully saved, households typically add only a certain share of them to their previously accumulated wealth. I find that households on average save only around 60 Cents of an inherited Euro. Quantile regression estimates then reveal that the propensity to save increases almost monotonically over the wealth distribution. Using the fitted values, I simulate the wealth distribution with and without transfers. I however do not find evidence that the heterogeneity in the propensity to save translates in a disequalizing effect of intergenerational transfers on the wealth distribution.

Kontakt

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