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Accounting for the Heterogeneity in Retirement Wealth

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Author Info
Fang Yang () (University of Minnesota University of Minnesota)

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Abstract

This paper studies a quantitative dynamic general equilibrium life-cycle model where parents and their children are linked by bequests, both voluntary and accidental, and by the transmission of earnings ability. This model is able to match very well the empirical observation that households with similar lifetime incomes hold very different amounts of wealth at retirement. Income heterogeneity and borrowing constraints are essential in generating the variation in retirement wealth among low lifetime income households, while the existence of intergenerational links is crucial in explaining the heterogeneity in retirement wealth among high lifetime income households

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Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2006 Meeting Papers with number 94.

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Date of creation: 03 Dec 2006
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Handle: RePEc:red:sed006:94

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Related research
Keywords: Wealth Inequality Incomplete Markets

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Marco Cagetti & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2005. "Wealth inequality: data and models," Working Paper Series WP-05-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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