The Wealth Accumulation of Italian Households: Evidence from Shaw

Raffaele Miniaci and Guglielmo Weber

Giornale degli Economisti, 2003, vol. 62, issue 1, 57-91

Abstract: We use SHAW data to assess whether household wealth falls in old age, and what factors affect the shape of the wealth age profile. We find that Italian households fail to run down their financial assets after retirement, but let their total wealth decline past age 60. This fall is largely due to the decrease in home wealth: using information from a comparable data source covering a 12-year period, we find that it is mostly due to cohort effects. We also analyze the way wealth changes with age in relation to the reported likelihood of making gifts or leaving bequests, the presence of grown children within or outside the household and the interactions between generations, the general health conditions of both head and spouse, household income and housing tenure. Our key finding is that subjective measures for health status, bequest and gift motives play a significant role in explaining total wealth.

Keywords: wealth accumulation; intergenerational transfers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H31 H55 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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