We examine the role of taxation within a simple model of wealth accumulation transmission from generation to generation. It turns out that the role of bequest taxation may be central to the development of inequality in the long run. Whether it does so depends on the the way that consumption...

I examine the idea of 'the long run' in Piketty (2014) and related works. In contrast to simplistic interpretations of long-run models of income- and wealth-distribution Piketty (2014) draws on a rich economic analysis that models the intra- and inter-generational processes that underlie the...