Bequests, Inheritances and Family Traditions
Bequests, Inheritances and Family Traditions
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遗赠、继承和家庭传统
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.1148982
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
O. Stark
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Donald Cox;O. Stark
“家庭传统”会影响遗赠行为吗？如果一个人从父母那里继承了一笔遗产，他是否更有可能把遗产留给他的孩子，即使在控制了遗产带来的财富增长之后也是如此？家庭传统涉及一系列与代际转移相关的问题：李嘉图式的等价性和排挤、遗赠在财富积累中的作用，以及遗赠对税收变化的反应。传统对与行为经济学相关的问题也很重要，例如心理账户、社会学习和价值观的代际传递。部分由于缺乏数据，到目前为止，很少有研究将遗产与遗产结合起来分析。我们参考了美国健康和退休调查，这是为数不多的同时包含遗产和遗产信息的数据集之一。我们发现，即使在控制了一系列家庭特征，最重要的是家庭净资产之后，继承的收受和预期的遗赠也是正向和显著相关的(无论是行为上还是统计上)。辨别如何给这种部分相关性贴上标签是一项艰巨的任务。我们提供了“家庭传统”的准确定义，并展示了它们与其他影响渠道的不同之处。我们对传统细微差别的解释，取决于衡量当财富或其他情况发生变化时，遗产计划的灵活性。(例如，财富短缺对可能试图继承家族传统的继承人的影响会小一些吗？)我们发现了支持这一观点的证据，即从财富中继承出来的倾向是不同的，取决于当前财富相对于收到的遗产是大是小。我们的结论是，对代际转移感兴趣的经济学家应该关注家庭传统在遗产行为中的作用。
Do “family traditions” influence bequest behavior? If an individual receives an inheritance from his parents, is he more likely to give a bequest to his children, even after controlling for the boost in wealth conferred by the inheritance? Family traditions are pertinent to a host of issues connected with intergenerational transfers: Ricardian equivalence and crowding out, the role of bequests in wealth accumulation, and the responsiveness of bequests to tax changes. Traditions also matter for issues related to behavioral economics, such as mental accounts, social learning, and the intergenerational transmission of values. Partially due to the paucity of data, few studies to date have analyzed bequests in conjunction with inheritances. We draw upon the U.S. Health and Retirement Survey, one of the few data sets with comprehensive information on both bequests and inheritances. We find that receipt of inheritances and intended bequests are positively and significantly related (both behaviorally and statistically) even after controlling for a host of household characteristics, most importantly household net worth. Discerning how to label this partial correlation is a daunting task. We provide a precise definition of “family traditions” and we show how they differ from other channels of influence. Our explanation of the nuances of traditions hinges on measuring the flexibility of bequest plans when wealth or other circumstances change. (For instance, will a wealth shortfall have a smaller impact on an inheritor who may be attempting to carry on a family tradition?) We find evidence in support of the idea that the propensity to bequeath out of wealth differs depending upon whether current wealth is large or small relative to inheritances received. We conclude that economists interested in intergenerational transfers should pay attention to the role of family traditions in bequest behavior.