Search Results
Showing results 1 to 5 of approximately 5.
(refine search)
Working Paper
The widow’s offering: inheritance, family structure, and the charitable gifts of women
This paper aims to explain disparities in the charitable bequest behavior of men and women. I use data on charitable bequests in wills from 17th Century Suffolk, England to investigate whether women or men were more generous to the poor when they died. Because of the difference in the legal restrictions faced by married men and married women, I choose to compare unmarried individuals. Higher proportions of unmarried men make charitable donations and men make higher average donations. I find that differences in the wealth, circumstances and family status of women can explain between 58% and ...
Working Paper
To leave or not to leave: the distribution of bequest motives
In this paper, we examine the effect of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the desire to die with positive net worth. Using a structural life-cycle model nested in a switching regression with unknown sample separation, we find that roughly 70 percent of the elderly single population has a bequest motive that may or may not be active depending on the level of resources at a given age. Both the presence and the magnitude of the bequest motive are statistically and economically significant. All else being equal, households with an operative bequest motive spend between $4,000 and $9,000 a ...
Journal Article
The baby boomers' mega-inheritance-myth or reality?
Retirees are one of the wealthiest segments of the U.S. population, and today's retirees have more wealth than any previous generation. Some have conjectured that bequests out of this wealth will significantly boost the resources of the baby boomers-the next generation of retirees-bridging the gap between their retirement needs and resources. This Economic Commentary argues against such a view and explains why boomers have no alternative but to save for their own retirement.
Working Paper
Will writing and bequest motives: early 20th century Irish evidence
This paper develops a simple model of the decision to write a will prior to death and tests the implications of the model using data from Ireland prior to the advent of state provided old age support. The model assumes that individuals write wills in order to change the distribution of their assets from the distribution that would occur in the absence of a will and that individuals incur will writing costs. The model leads to the predictions that individuals whose desired distribution differs most dramatically from the default and those who face the lowest costs will be the most likely to ...
Working Paper
Medicaid's nursing home coverage and asset transfers
Medicaid covers the costs of a long nursing home stay. This coverage may create an incentive for the elderly to transfer their assets to their children in order to qualify for Medicaid before entering a nursing home. Previous researchers had found little evidence that such behavior was widespread or that asset transfers were large. However, data from AHEAD suggest that the self-assessed probability of entering a nursing home is a significant determinant of the likelihood of making an asset transfer. The budgetary implications of these Medicaid-induced asset transfers are probably fairly ...