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The objective of this paper is to study when and how much labor and capital income of heirs respond to inheritances. We estimate fixed effects models following direct heirs, inheriting in 2004, during the years 2000--2008 using Swedish panel data. Our first main result is that the more the heir inherits, the lower her labor income becomes. This labor income effect appears in the years after the heir had inherited and is stronger for old heirs than for young heirs. We also find evidence of anticipation effects that occur before the actual transfer. Our second main result is that the more the heir inherits, the higher her capital income becomes. This effect only appears in the years after receiving the inheritance. It seems to be dissipating after a couple of years.

Since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been a widespread belief that the social norm of "women and children first" (WCF) gives women a survival advantage over men in maritime disasters, and that captains and crew members give priority to passengers. We analyze a database of 18 maritime disasters spanning three centuries, covering the fate of over 15,000 individuals of more than 30 nationalities. Our results provide a unique picture of maritime disasters. Women have a distinct survival disadvantage compared with men. Captains and crew survive at a significantly higher rate than passengers. We also find that: the captain has the power to enforce normative behavior; there seems to be no association between duration of a disaster and the impact of social norms; women fare no better when they constitute a small share of the ship's complement; the length of the voyage before the disaster appears to have no impact on women's relative survival rate; the sex gap in survival rates has declined since World War I; and women have a larger disadvantage in British shipwrecks. Taken together, our findings show that human behavior in life-and-death situations is best captured by the expression "every man for himself."O n April 15, 2012, a century had passed since RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic disaster has generated immense public and scholarly interest and, as one of the most extensively covered events in history, obtained an almost mythological status. The evacuation of the Titanic serves as the prime example of chivalry at sea. Men stood back, while women and children were given priority to board the lifeboats. In the end, 70% of the women and children were saved compared with only 20% of the men (1). The social norm of saving "women and children first" (WCF) in shipwrecks has often been referred to as the "unwritten law of the sea."It is well known that social norms of fairness and cooperation influence human behavior in a wide range of situations (2, 3). For instance, charitable giving and donation of blood and organs is widespread (4-6). Men and women are, however, subject to different norms of helping behavior (7,8). Men are in general expected to help people in emergencies, whereas women are, to a higher degree, expected to engage in care over the long term. The expectation of men to display chivalry and heroism in maritime disasters can be seen as an archetypal example of sex differences in social norms of helping behavior. Men displaying extreme altruism in disasters contrasts the picture from economic experiments in which men tend to be more selfish than women (9).Rational individuals, whether with self-regarding or other-regarding preferences, compare the benefits and costs of helping. When helping substantially increases the risk of dying, it would be rational for most individuals to save themselves rather than helping others. This cost-benefit logic is fundamental in economic models of human behavior, including models in which individuals choose to comply with or violate social norms...

This paper makes two contributions to the literature on the effects of wealth on health. First, it deals with reverse causality and omitted variable bias by exploiting exogenous variation in inherited wealth generated by the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax. Second, it analyzes responses in health outcomes through the use of administrative registers. The results show that increased wealth has limited short to medium run impacts on objective adult health. This is in line with what has previously been reported in the literature.