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Social welfare, parental altruism, and inequality

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  • Pietro Reichlin

Abstract

When individuals have heterogeneous and persistent degrees of one‐sided parental altruism, inequality may grow large and standard social welfare criteria are problematic. If the planner selects Pareto optimal allocations based on some target level of consumption inequality, the solution implies an aggregation of individuals' utilities that is strongly asymmetric and biased toward the less altruistic dynasties. If instead, the planner uses a symmetric utilitarian criterion, the solution is likely to generate a large degree of long‐run inequality (even relative to laissez‐faire competitive equilibria), it can only be decentralized with negative estate taxes or lower bounds on bequests, and it is time‐inconsistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Pietro Reichlin, 2020. "Social welfare, parental altruism, and inequality," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1391-1419, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:22:y:2020:i:5:p:1391-1419
    DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12429
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    1. Kirill Borissov & Stefano Bosi & Thai Ha-Huy & Mikhail Pakhnin, 2023. "Heterogeneous Bequests and Social Inequalities," CESifo Working Paper Series 10717, CESifo.

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