The impact of intergenerational transfers on wealth inequality in Japan and the United States

Niimi, Yoko; Horioka, Charles Yuji

doi:10.1111/twec.12544

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Second, the work decision is also endogenous because respondents may choose to quit their jobs in order to provide care to their parents or parents-in-law (see, e.g., Niimi, 2017, for an analysis of this issue using Japanese data). This is relatively common in Japan in the case of women, and thus it is especially important to take account of this problem in the case of the female sample.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we should note that the fact that the child derives disutility from attention to his parents does not necessarily imply that the child is "inhumanly" selfish. Oftentimes, taking care of aging parents can be very stressful and can lower the subjective well-being of children, as found by Niimi (2016) using Japanese data.…”

Section: An Altruistic-strategic Bequest Model With Sibling Rivalry Amentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to control for the wealth of parents because selfishly motivated children will obviously be more eager to provide care to their parents if their parents are wealthier, which means a larger potential bequest. Unfortunately, the data source we used does not contain any direct information on parental wealth, so, following Kohara and Ohtake (2011) and Niimi and Horioka (2017), we tried using the educational attainment of the respondent's father as a proxy for parental wealth. However, the coefficient of this variable was never significant and including it did not cause any appreciable changes in any of the other coefficients.…”

Section: Estimation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Why Do Children Take Care of Their Elderly Parents? Are the Japanese Any Different?

Horioka¹,

Gahramanov²,

Hayat³

et al. 2016

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In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of why individuals provide care and attention to their elderly parents using a two-period overlapping generations model with endogenous saving and a "contest success function" and test this model using micro data from a Japanese household survey, the Osaka University Preference Parameter Study. To summarize our main findings, we find that the Japanese are more likely to live with (or near) their elderly parents and/or to provide care and attention to them if they expect to receive a bequest from them, which constitutes strong support for the selfish bequest motive or the exchange motive (much stronger than in the United States), but we find that their caregiving behavior is also heavily influenced by the strength of their altruism toward their parents and social norms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Altruistic-strategic Bequest Model With Sibling Rivalry Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Estimation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Why Do Children Take Care of Their Elderly Parents? Are the Japanese Any Different?

Horioka¹,

Gahramanov²,

Hayat³

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…The results also suggested that the level of business equity, financial assets held in retirement accounts, and the value of the primary residence were positively associated with the subjective probability of leaving a bequest. Many studies showed that inter-generational wealth plays a role in perpetuating the wealth inequality for under-served populations (Menchik, 1979;Niimi & Horioka, 2018). Future policy analyses of whether the Tax Reform of 2018 affects bequest intentions and expectations, and the long-term effects of tax reform on wealth inequality, will be of interest to the policy makers.…”

Section: Summary Of the Findings From This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bequest expectations among the U.S. older adults: The roles of generational differences and personality traits

Fan

Chatterjee

2019

Fin Plan Rev

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This study used the 2012 and 2014 panels of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative dataset, to examine the associations between personality traits, generational cohorts, and bequest expectations among elderly households in the United States. The results indicated that neuroticism was associated with a lower subjective probability of leaving a bequest, and extroversion was associated with a higher subjective probability of leaving a bequest. Income, assets, and educational attainment were also positively associated with self‐reported bequest expectations. Generational differences were observed in the subjective probabilities of leaving bequests. The results of this study help in understanding the psychosocial factors associated with leaving bequests in an aging society, and provide implications for financial planners, practitioners, and policy makers.

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“…Under this approach, a tradition is thought to affect not only the shape of the marginal utility of bequeathing but also its level. Niimi and Horioka (), for instance, find that the receipt of intergenerational transfers increases the likelihood of parents leaving bequests to their own children in both Japan and the US.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of the Recent Inheritance Tax Reform on Bequest Behaviour in Japan

Niimi

2019

Fiscal Studies

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This paper examines the behavioural response of households to wealth transfer taxation using household survey data from Japan, with particular attention being paid to the implications of different bequest motives that households may have. The data reveal that relatively few households plan to reallocate the newly taxable amount of wealth to their own consumption or inter vivos transfers in response to the recent lowering of the basic deduction of the inheritance tax. Our analysis shows that this partly reflects the fact that a relatively large share of households have no or a weak bequest motive in Japan. However, our estimation results also suggest that parents with an altruistic bequest motive are more likely to avoid an increase in their children's tax bill by reallocating the newly taxable amount of wealth to inter vivos transfers than those with no or a weak bequest motive. By contrast, parents with an exchange bequest motive are more likely to respond to the tax reform by reallocating the newly taxable amount of wealth to their own consumption, though they seem to exhibit a similar response to those with an altruistic bequest motive in some cases.

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The impact of intergenerational transfers on wealth inequality in Japan and the United States

Cited by 27 publications

References 41 publications

Why Do Children Take Care of Their Elderly Parents? Are the Japanese Any Different?

Why Do Children Take Care of Their Elderly Parents? Are the Japanese Any Different?

Bequest expectations among the U.S. older adults: The roles of generational differences and personality traits

The Effect of the Recent Inheritance Tax Reform on Bequest Behaviour in Japan

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