 What do bequests in married couples with a surviving spouse tell us about bequest motives?Sean Fahle Journal of Public Economics, 2025, vol. 244, issue C Abstract: This paper studies the bequests that arise in married couples after the death of the first spouse. It provides the first systematic examination of these bequests using representative data from the United States on the actual (not intended or expected) bequests made to each of the couple’s children. I find that these bequests are divided among children very similarly to the bequests left by single individuals, which have been the near-exclusive focus of the literature. In both cases, I observe strong support for theories of bequests based on exchange and evolutionary psychology and no evidence for altruistic or dynastic models. Also novel to this paper, I document that different types of assets—residences, estates, and life insurance—exhibit different bequest patterns. While estates are typically equally divided, parents often divide life insurance and especially housing assets unequally, often leaving these assets to caregiving children. Selective disinheritance of certain children, particularly stepchildren, is common. Keywords: Bequests; Inheritances; Intergenerational transfers; Altruism; Exchange; Savings (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:pubeco:v:244:y:2025:i:c:s0047272725000313 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105333 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier |
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