This paper examines the bequest\gift behavior of altruistic parents who do not know their children's abilities and … cannot observe their children's work effort. Parents are likely to respond to this information problem by making larger … bequests to higher earning children and by using their transfers implicitly either to tax at the margin low earning children or …

externality from giving and discouraging effort of children due to income effect generated by bequests. The analysis shows that … generations, and suggests that inheritance rather than estate tax is better suited to implement the corresponding policy …

Charitable bequests are an important source of philanthropic support. Unlike bequests to children which can be taxed at …

transfer resources to their children in two ways: First, through education investments, which have heterogeneous and stochastic … returns for children, and, second, through financial bequests, which yield a safe, uniform return. Each generation … unrestricted policies and show that, if education is highly complementary to children's ability, it is optimal to distort parents …