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How Inheritance Expectations Impact Household Savings

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  • Ignacio Belloc

    (University of Zaragoza)

  • José Alberto Molina

    (Departamento de Análisis Económico, Universidad de Zaragoza)

Abstract

This paper examines how expecting to receive an inheritance impacts household savings decisions. Life-cycle consumption models indicate that the expectation of inheriting should reduce current savings plans for forward-thinking consumers. We investigate how inheritance expectations shape savings behavior within the household, considering factors such as liquidity constraints and education. To do so, we use household fixed effects to account for time-invariant factors and exploit within-household variation over time by using panel data from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (2003-2019), which provides individual-level information and overcomes endogeneity concerns commonly present in cross-sectional studies. Our findings reveal that households adjust their current savings in anticipation of receiving future inheritances. Specifically, men decrease their current savings by an average of 5.4 percent if they expect to receive an inheritance in the future. Additionally, we find more pronounced changes in savings among households with higher levels of education and incomes, which are less likely to face liquidity constraints. These findings inform inheritance fiscal policies, such as inheritance taxes, revealing that households consider the expectation of inheriting in the future for current saving decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Belloc & José Alberto Molina, 2025. "How Inheritance Expectations Impact Household Savings," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1084, Boston College Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:1084
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Henrik Yde Andersen & Søren Leth-Petersen, 2021. "Housing Wealth or Collateral: How Home Value Shocks Drive Home Equity Extraction and Spending," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 403-440.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations

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