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Junior is rich: bequests as consumption

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  • George Constantinides
  • John Donaldson
  • Rajnish Mehra

Abstract

We explore the consequences for asset pricing of admitting a bequest motive into an otherwise standard overlapping generations model where agents trade equity and perpetual debt securities. Prices of securities are seen to be approximately 50% higher in an economy with bequests as compared to an otherwise identical one where bequests are absent. Robust estimates of the equity premium are obtained in several cases where the desire to leave bequests is modest relative to the desire for old age consumption.
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  • George Constantinides & John Donaldson & Rajnish Mehra, 2007. "Junior is rich: bequests as consumption," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 32(1), pages 125-155, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:32:y:2007:i:1:p:125-155
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-006-0163-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Rajnish Mehra & Facundo Piguillem & Edward C. Prescott, 2011. "Costly financial intermediation in neoclassical growth theory," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, March.
    2. George M. Constantinides, 2002. "Rational Asset Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1567-1591, August.
    3. Hamada, Kojun & Yanagihara, Mitsuyoshi, 2016. "Intergenerational altruism and the transfer paradox in an overlapping generations model," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 161-167.
    4. Donaldson, John B. & Koulovatianos, Christos & Li, Jian & Mehra, Rajnish, 2025. "Demographics and FDI: lessons from China’s one-child policy," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29, pages 1-1, January.
    5. Richard Barnett & Joydeep Bhattacharya & Helle Bunzel, 2013. "Deviant generations, Ricardian equivalence, and growth cycles," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 52(1), pages 367-396, January.
    6. Enrico Giorgi & Thorsten Hens & János Mayer, 2007. "Computational aspects of prospect theory with asset pricing applications," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 267-281, May.
    7. Rangan Gupta & Lardo Stander, 2014. "Endogenous Fluctuations in an Endogenous Growth Model with Inflation Targeting," Working Papers 201432, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    8. Rajnish Mehra & Facundo Piguillem & Edward C. Prescott, 2007. "Intermediated quantities and returns," Working Papers 655, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    9. George M. Constantinides, 2006. "Market Organization And The Prices Of Financial Assets," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 74(s1), pages 1-23, September.
    10. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-461 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2009. "Crime and Remittance Transfers," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 232-247.
    12. Sami Attaoui & Pierre Six, 2014. "Hedging demand and the certainty equivalent of wealth," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(3), pages 1742-1750.
    13. Giorgio Bellettini & Filippo Taddei, 2009. "Real Estate Prices and the Importance of Bequest Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 2577, CESifo.
    14. Bellettini Giorgio & Taddei Filippo & Zanella Giulio, 2013. "Bequest taxes, donations, and house prices," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 355-379, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bequests; Overlapping generations; Equity premium; Asset pricing; D1; D91; E2; G11; G12;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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