Do Bequests Increase or Decrease Wealth Inequalities?

I am indebted to the Institute for Research on Household Economics for conducting the survey used in this paper and for granting me permission to use these data, to Tae Okada for capable research assistance, to Wataru Kureishi, Keiko Murata, Kazuyasu Sakamoto, Sawako Shirahase, and Midori Wakabayashi for helpful comments, and to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Japanese Government for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Category B (topic number 18330068) and Category S (topic number 20223004), which supported this research. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.