Bequest Motives: A Comparison of Sweden and the United States

Arbeitspapier

This paper reviews four well-known theoretical models of private bequest behavior, notes their differing implications for public policy, and discusses a way of empirically discriminating among them. Then it implements the test with micro data from Sweden (LLS) and the U.S. (PSID). The so-called altruistic (or dynastic) model, which, among the four models, has perhaps the most wide-ranging implications for policy, receives some, though limited, support in the LLS, but not the PSID. The inter-country difference is statistically significant. There is evidence of a potential complication due to a dependence of children's education on parents financial status in the case of the U.S.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 1998:16

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
• Subject: accidental model ; altruistic model ; egoistic model ; exchange model

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Laitner, John ; Ohlsson, Henry
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Uppsala University, Department of Economics
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 1998

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/82843
• URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-2423
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET