The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation

Laurence Kotlikoff and Lawrence Summers

No 445, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper uses historicaI U.S. data to directly estimate the contribution of intergenerational transfers to aggregate capital accumulation. The evidence presented indicates that intergenerational transfers account for the vast majority of aggregate U .S. capital formation; only a negligible fraction of actual capital accumulation can be traced u, life-cycle or "hump" savings. A major difference between this study and previous investigations of this issue is the use of more accurate longitudinal age-earnings and age-consumption profiles. These profiles are simply too flat to generate substantial lifecycle savings. This paper suggests the importance of and need for substantially greater research and data collection on intergenerational transfers. fife-cycle models of savings that emphasize savings for retirement as the dominant form of apical accumulation should give way to models that illuminate the determinants of intergenerational transfers.

Date: 1980-02
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Published as Kotlikoff, Laurence J. and Summers, Lawrence H. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 89, No. 4, (August 1981), pp. 706-732.

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Journal Article: The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation (1981)
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