No one has derived closed-form solutions for consumption with stochastic labor income and
constant relative risk aversion utility. A numerical technique is used here to give an accurate …

Older wealth holders spend down assets much more slowly than predicted by classic life-
cycle models. This paper introduces health-dependent utility into a model with incomplete …

This article attempts to document and account for the long-run evolution of inheritance. We
find that in a country like France the annual flow of inheritance was about 20–25% of …

This paper uses household data to provide direct estimates of intergenerational transfers as
a source of wealth. The authors distinguish between intended transfers (for example, gifts to …

A FREQUENT THEME of policy discus-sion is the peril of the public debt. News reports
alternately sober and frantic regularly point to government debt as a major cause of …

In his best-selling Irrational Exuberance, Robert Shiller cautioned that society's obsession
with the stock market was fueling the volatility that has since made a roller coaster of the …

This paper compares the age-wealth distribution produced in life-cycle economies to the
corresponding distribution in the US economy. The idea is to calibrate the model economies …

This paper presents new empirical evidence in support of the view that a significant fraction
of total saving is motivated by the desire to leave bequests. Specifically, I find that social …

In the early 1950s, Franco Modigliani and his student Richard Brumberg worked out a theory
of spending based on the idea that people make intelligent choices about how much they …

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the existing theories of persistent inequality across
generations. The chapter discusses total economic inequality both in wealth and in earnings …