Gender and Inheritances

Abstract

Using administrative data from Norway, we document that gifts and inheritances are a more important component of total income for women than for men. This is particularly true at the very top of the distributions of total lifetime income and net wealth. These differences are not due to gender differences in the receipt of intergenerational transfers but are driven by gender differences in total income. When we calculate counterfactual distributions of total lifetime income where gifts and inheritances are equalized across all individuals, we find that gifts and inheritances tend to reduce gender gaps across the distribution.