ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS OF BEQUESTS

描述：该项目将调查继承人的作用， 遗产在塑造家庭财富积累决策中的作用。 父母的遗产和子女的遗赠是相辅相成的 深入了解遗产在家庭决策中的作用的方法。 该项目将开发和评估遗赠行为模型， 将纳入死亡风险对遗产的影响、死亡风险的水平 遗产，年金收入，继承人的特征， 口味. 该模型将使用退休后的面板数据进行估计 人口 除了这个正式的模型，研究人员将 估计两个互补但更多的数据描述模型， 遗赠行为 利用捐助者、受援者和 潜在的竞争对手，这些模型将包括实际遗赠的模式 接受和继承，以及意图的水平和变化 留下遗产 数据限制严重限制了我们提供信息的能力。 关于遗赠在形成财富不平等程度方面的作用的测试 在人口中，以及遗赠作为一个 家庭储蓄的动机。 这项研究将使用新的可用和 关于财富积累、计划和实际遗赠的创新数据，以及 从四次高质量的住户调查中获得的遗产。 综合起来， 这些调查不仅关注生命周期中的成熟期和老年期， 与遗赠行为最相关的信息， 关于遗赠和遗产在整个生命周期中的作用。

DESCRIPTION: This project will investigate the role of inheritances and bequests in shaping household decisions on wealth accumulation. Inheritances from parents and bequests to children are two complementary ways of gaining insight into the role of bequests in household decisions. The project will develop and estimate a behavioral model of bequests that will incorporate the effects on bequests of mortality risk, the level of bequeathable wealth, annuity incomes, characteristics of inheritors, and tastes. This model will be estimated using panel data for a post-retired population. In addition to this formal model, the investigators will estimate two complementary but more data descriptive models of bequests-leaving behavior. Using characteristics of donors, recipients and potential rivals, these models will include the patterns of actual bequests received and inheritances given, as well as levels and changes in intentions to leave bequests. Data limitations have severely restricted our ability to provide informative tests about the role of bequests in shaping the extent of wealth inequality in the population, as well as the relative importance of bequests as a motive for households' savings. This research will use newly available and innovative data on wealth accumulation, planned and actual bequests, and inheritances received from four high-quality household surveys. Combined, these surveys not only focus on the mature and older ages in the life-cycle that are most relevant for bequest behavior, they also provide information about the role of bequests and inheritances throughout the life-cycle.