This paper examines the impact of estate taxes on saving in a series of models that posit different motivations for transfers between parents and children. We show that the effects of the tax on saving depend on why donors give bequests. In addition, under each motive examined - bequests as...

This paper explores how altruistic parents structure transfer rules in response to potential incentive problems and how the investment behavior of children is influenced by these transfer policies. To investigate these issues, I develop a dynamic model of altruistic transfers in which transfers...

The level of outstanding home mortgage debt in the United States has declined about $1.5 trillion, or 13 percent, since its peak six years ago. This large drop in mortgage debt has been the primary driver of the reduction in household liabilities often referred to as "household deleveraging" and...

Future old-age mortality is notoriously difficult to predict because it requires not only an understanding of the process of senescence, which is influenced by genetic, environmental and behavioral factors, but also a prediction of how these factors will evolve going forward. In this paper, I...