This paper presents a brief exposition of three theoretical models of household behavior and shows that these models have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division, surveys previous empirical studies on bequest motives and bequest division, presents unique survey data...

This paper estimates the magnitude of net capital gains on household wealth in Japan and then conducts an econometric analysis of their impact on consumption using national accounts data for the 1955-93 period. It finds that net capital gains on household wealth have been sizeable albeit...

This paper estimates the contribution of net saving for each of twelve motives to overall household saving in Japan using micro data from a Japanese government survey and finds that net saving for the retirement and precautionary motives, both of which are consistent with the life-cycle model,...