Heterogeneous Bequests and Social Inequalities

Kirill Borissov, Stefano Bosi, Thai Ha-Huy and Mikhail Pakhnin

No 10717, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study a growth model with two types of agents who are heterogeneous in their degree of family altruism. We prove that every equilibrium path converges to a unique steady state, and study the effect of altruism on the properties of steady-state equilibrium. We show that aggregate income is positively related to both level of altruism and altruism heterogeneity. When altruism heterogeneity is low, income inequality follows an inverse U-shaped pattern relative to the level of altruism, which is consistent with the cross-country Kuznets curve. When altruism heterogeneity is high, income inequality monotonically decreases with the level of altruism. Our results suggest that heterogeneous altruism is an important mechanism linking economic growth and income inequality.

Keywords: economic growth; heterogeneous agents; altruism; bequests; inequality; Kuznets curve (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D15 D64 E21 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro
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Related works:
Journal Article: Heterogeneous bequests and social inequalities (2025)
Working Paper: Heterogeneous bequests and social inequalities (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10717

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