The intra-family division of bequests and bequest motives: empirical evidence from a survey on Japanese households

Junya Hamaaki, Masahiro Hori and Keiko Murata
Additional contact information
Keiko Murata: Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office

Journal of Population Economics, 2019, vol. 32, issue 1, No 10, 309-346

Abstract: Abstract The division of bequests among family members differs sharply between Japan and the USA. Whereas in the USA, bequests tend to be divided equally among decedents’ children, they tend to be divided unequally in Japan. We start by arguing that certain legal and institutional aspects, which are not present in Japan, lead to equal bequests in the USA. We then investigate unequal patterns of bequest division in Japan to understand parental bequest motives. Utilizing institutional characteristics that are specific to Japan allows us to examine parental motives. We find that while the patterns of bequest division look generally consistent with most of the parental bequest motives suggested in the literature, such as the dynastic and the strategic motive, parents do not necessarily bequeath more to economically disadvantaged children.

Keywords: Bequests; Dynastic motive; Altruism; Strategic motive; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D31 D64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-018-0712-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Intra-Family Division of Bequests and Bequest Motives: Empirical Evidence from a Survey on Japanese Households (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:32:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s00148-018-0712-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... tion/journal/148/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-018-0712-1

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Population Economics is currently edited by K.F. Zimmermann

More articles in Journal of Population Economics from Springer, European Society for Population Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().