"The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this. You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email. This paper provides a non-technical overview of the economic arguments related to the desirability of transfer taxation and a summary of...

I discuss available evidence about the evolution of top wealth shares in the United States over the last one hundred years. The three main approaches - Survey of Consumer Finances, estate tax multiplier techniques and capitalization method - generate generally consistent findings until mid-1980s...

In this chapter, I review empirical and theoretical literature on taxation of intergenerational transfers (estates, bequests, inheritances, inter vivos gifts) and wealth. The main message may be summarized as follows. Empirical evidence on bequest motivations and responses to estate taxation is...