Two of the most basic frameworks which economists use for analyzing national saving and private wealth accumulation are the life-cycle model (e.g., Modigliani [1986]) and the so-called altruistic or dynastic model (e.g., Barro [1974] and Becker [1974]). In the first, households care about their...

This paper reviews four well known theoretical models of private bequest behavior, notes their differing implications for public policy, and discusses a way of empirically discriminating among them. Then it implements the test with micro data from Sweden (LLS) and the U.S. (PSID). The so-called...