 Expected wealth transfers and consumption across the wealth distribution in EuropeMiguel Malo and Dario Sciulli () Economic Modelling, 2023, vol. 126, issue C Abstract: This article presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between expected wealth transfers (inheritances and gifts) and consumption, explicitly considering the distribution of consumption and wealth. While there are many empirical analyses of unexpected wealth transfers, it is unusual to analyze consumption with respect to expected wealth transfers because of the lack of information on expected inheritances or gifts. Using microdata for 17 European countries from the 2014 wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, we find that households expecting a wealth transfer consume as if they were in a higher wealth decile. This increase in consumption differs in size depending on household wealth. We verify that this result is not related to risk preferences or liquidity constraints. These results provide support for consumption smoothing as predicted by the life-cycle model, although the extent of the smoothing depends on the position of the household in the wealth distribution. Keywords: Inheritances; Gifts; Expectations; Inequality; Liquidity constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:126:y:2023:i:c:s0264999323002286 DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106416 Access Statistics for this article Economic Modelling is currently edited by S. Hall and P. Pauly More articles in Economic Modelling from Elsevier |
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