Inheritances and the Distribution of Wealth or Whatever Happened to the Great Inheritance Boom?

<p>We found that on average over the period from 1989 to 2007 21 percent of American households at a given point of time received a wealth transfer and these accounted for 23 percent of their net worth. Over the lifetime about 30 percent of households could expect to receive a wealth transfer and these would account for close to 40 percent of their net worth near time of death. However there is little evidence of an inheritance boom. In fact from 1989 to 2007 the share of households reporting a wealth transfer fell by 2.5 percentage points. The average value of inheritances received among all households did increase but at a slow pace by 10 percent and wealth transfers as a proportion of current net worth fell sharply over this period from 29 to 19 percent or by 10 percentage points. We also found somewhat surprisingly that inheritances and other wealth transfers tend to be equalizing in terms of the distribution of household wealth. Indeed the addition of wealth transfers to other sources of household wealth has had a sizeable effect on reducing the inequality of wealth.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>