The Influence of Intergenerational Transfers on Wealth Inequality in Rich Countries

Using survey microdata for the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain, the paper applies influence function regression to estimate the impact on wealth inequality of a ceteris paribus marginal increase in the proportion of recipients of wealth transfers of differing sizes. The results show that whereas more transfer recipients would be expected to reduce wealth inequality on average, an increase in recipients of large transfers would increase overall wealth inequality, as those recipients are concentrated around the top of the wealth distribution. The identified threshold above which transfers become disequalizing can be informative for the design of capital receipts taxes.