Erbschaften und ihr Einfluss auf die Vermögensverteilung

Abstract

Summary: In this paper, we present an analysis of the influence of inheritances on the distribution of wealth alongside selected recent findings on current trends in inheritances and gifts. The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) is used from a longitudinal perspective to study the extent to which the wealth transferred through inheritances accrues to households that already had some capital stock, and whether this wealth creates the starting point for households without any previous assets to begin building up their capital assets. The paper shows, based on the usual method of relative inequality measures used in the research on poverty and wealth, that inheritances do not increase inequalities in the distribution of wealth. Rather, they enable households that would otherwise possess no capital stock to begin accumulating (even modest amounts of) assets. The increase in wealth through inheritances among the group of households that had previously possessed capital assets is relatively less important by contrast, and thus does not lead to greater inequality in the overall distribution of wealth.