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Volume
1, No. 2,
August 2002
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Altruistic Bequests with Inherited
Tastes
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Mohamed
Jellal
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Toulouse Business School, France
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Francois-Charles
Wolff*
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Universite de Nantes, France; Cnav and
Ined, France
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Abstract
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This paper examines the
altruistic model of bequest when a child inherits life
standard aspirations from his parents. We prove that
the impact of the aspiration effect on transfers can
be positive or negative, depending on both the
strength of inherited tastes and the coefficients of
risk aversion for the parent and the child. However,
numerical illustrations indicate that the case for a
negative effect is rather weak. Using a French data
set on transfers within the family, we investigate how
transmission habits affect the level of private
assistance. We show that parents are more likely to
help their children when they have themselves received
money from their own parents. Hence, any public
program that affects current transfers also influences
family transfers in the future.
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Key words
: altruism; bequest; inherited tastes;
risk aversion
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JEL classification
: D64; J2
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