Most models of family transfers consider only two generations and focus on two motives: altruism and exchange. They also assume perfect substitution between inter-vivos downward transfers and bequests. Based on French evidence, we show that parent-to-child transfers belong to three distinct...

Using the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), a large micro-level dataset on households' wealth in fifteen euro area countries, this paper explores how households allocate their assets. We derive stylized facts on asset participation as well as levels of asset holdings and...

[eng] From Theory to an Original Methodological Survey . Standard saving theory -which assumes the "exponential” discounting of future utilities through to the end of the life cycle and refers, under an uncertain future, to the criterion of expected utility -uses only two preference parameters...

[fre] La transmission des grandes fortunes Profil des riches défunts en France . L'étude d'un échantillon anonyme de déclarations de succession en 1 987 fait apparaître que, parmi les défunts les plus riches, les dix premiers pour cent (défunts « riches ») lèguent 51 % du patrimoine...

[ger] "Bildung von Rücklagen für unvorhergesehene Ereignisse“, so begann Keynes (1936) seine Liste der "acht wichtigsten subjektiven Motive oder Gründe, weshalb die Menschen ihre Einkünfte nicht ausgeben möchten“. Für dieses Vorsichtssparen - insbesondere aufgrund der Unwägbarkeiten...