Year: 1980
Type: report
Abstract: This paper uses historical u.S. data to directly estimate the contribution of intergenerational transfers to aggregate capital accumulation.The evidence presented indicates that intergenerational transfers account for the vast majority of aggregate U.S. capital formation; only a negligible fraction of actual capital accumulation can be traced to life cycle or "hump" savings.~major difference between this study and previous investigations of this issue is the use of actual rather than hypothetical longitudinal age consumption profiles.These profiles are simply too flat to generate substantial life cycle savings.This paper suggests the importance of and need for substantially greater research and data collection on intergenerational transfers.Life~cle models of savings which emphasi-ze-sav4ngs.forr-e-t-kemen-t-as---the dominate form of capital accumulation sh()t11e.t__g:l,YIiLW~Y tomodelswhiGh--emp.has.betherather
DOI: 10.3386/w0445
Authors: Laurence Kotlikoff, Lawrence Summers
Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
Language: English
Subfield: Finance
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2891970589