Distributional and Financial Impact of Universal Inheritance in four European countries

Guillem Vidal-Lorda (), Andreas Thiemannn (), Leire Salazar () and José A. Noguera ()
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Guillem Vidal-Lorda: European Commmission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Andreas Thiemannn: German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Leire Salazar: European Commmission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en
José A. Noguera: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)

No 2023-10, JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: The idea of a Universal Inheritance (UI) has been recently gaining weight amongst scholars concerned over increasing wealth inequality. A UI consists of a one-off public payment of an agreed sum to each citizen of young adulthood. In this article, we provide the results of novel simulations to assess the cost and the distributive impact of such policy by testing different parameters for both the benefit amount and its financing. The simulations run on a top-tail adjusted version of the Household Financial Consumption Survey covering four countries: Finland, Germany, Ireland, and Italy. We find that, under some parameters, a UI would significantly reduce inequality and could be realistically financed by taxing the top 1%.

Keywords: Universal Inheritance; Wealth; Inequality; Simulation; Redistribution; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 H23 H24 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2023-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-pbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:dclass:202310

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