TY  - JOUR
AU  - Brown,Jeffrey R.
AU  - Weisbenner,Scott J.
TI  - Is a Bird in Hand Worth More than a Bird in the Bush? Intergenerational Transfers and Savings Behavior
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8753
PY  - 2002
Y2  - January 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8753
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8753.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeffrey R. Brown
Department of Finance
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
515 East Gregory Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Tel: 217/333-3322
E-Mail: brownjr@illinois.edu

Scott Weisbenner
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Finance
340 Wohlers Hall, MC-706
1206 South Sixth Street
Champaign, IL  61820
Tel: 217/333-0872
Fax: 217/244-9867
E-Mail: weisbenn@illinois.edu
AB  - This paper provides new evidence on the decomposition of aggregate household wealth into life-cycle and transfer wealth. Using the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances, it finds that transfer wealth accounts for approximately one-fifth to one-quarter of aggregate wealth, suggesting a larger role for life-cycle savings than some previous estimates.  Despite the smaller aggregate size of transfer wealth, its concentration among a small number of households suggests that it can still have an important effect on the savings decisions of recipients. Estimates suggest that past receipts of transfer wealth reduce life-cycle savings by as much as dollar-for-dollar, while expected future transfers do not produce such a crowd-out effect.
ER  -