Intergenerational wealth mobility and the role of inheritance: Evidence from multiple generations

Daniel Waldenström, Adrian Adermon and Mikael Lindahl

No 11456, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This study estimates intergenerational correlations in mid-life wealth across three generations, and a young fourth generation, and examines how much of the parent-child association that can be explained by inheritances. Using a Swedish data set we find parent-child rank correlations of 0.3–0.4 and grandparents-grandchild rank correlations of 0.1–0.2. Conditional on parents’ wealth, grandparents’ wealth is weakly positively associated with grandchild’s wealth and the parent-child correlation is basically unchanged if we control for grandparents’ wealth. Bequests and gifts strikingly account for at least 50 per cent of the parent-child wealth correlation while earnings and education are only able to explain 25 per cent.

Keywords: Inequality; Income mobility; Inheritance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-edu and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11456 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Intergenerational Wealth Mobility and the Role of Inheritance: Evidence from Multiple Generations (2018)
Working Paper: Intergenerational wealth mobility and the role of inheritance: Evidence from multiple generations (2018)
Working Paper: Intergenerational wealth mobility and the role of inheritance: Evidence from multiple generations (2016)
Working Paper: Intergenerational Wealth Mobility and the Role of Inheritance: Evidence from Multiple Generations (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:cpr:ceprdp:11456

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP11456

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().