This paper proposes different tests of the life cycle hypothesis, concerning the determinants of household portfolio choices. The theoretical approach is based upon the intertemporal portfolio choice model and focuses on market imperfections and the following duality of needs: lifecycle...

Within a life cycle framework, this paper focuses first, on the relation, adjusted for age, between wealth and lifetime resources (comprising permanent (labor) income and inheritance) and second, on distributional issues, through the contribution to wealth inequality of age and permanent income...

Wealth is highly concentrated among a few very rich individuals. The usual models of wealth transmission offer life-cycle and family motives for bequests. The hypothesis here is that those motives are not likely to be active for very rich individuals. Using a sample of french estate records...