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Intergenerational Transfers and Asset Inequality in J apan: Empirical Evidence from New Survey Data
Author(s) -
Hamaaki Junya,
Hori Masahiro,
Murata Keiko
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
asian economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.345
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1467-8381
pISSN - 1351-3958
DOI - 10.1111/asej.12024
Subject(s) - asset (computer security) , economics , inequality , ordered probit , econometrics , probit model , demographic economics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , computer security , computer science
This paper quantitatively examines the impact of intergenerational transfers on asset inequality among J apanese households. We estimate an intergenerational asset transfer function with various control variables, using a unique micro dataset taken from a survey conducted by the E conomic and S ocial R esearch I nstitute, C abinet O ffice. Employing three different models, a T obit model, an interval regression model and an ordered probit model, to ensure that our results are independent of the specific econometric approach used, we investigate whether asset transfers received are correlated with households’ financial strength. We find that higher income households are likely to receive larger asset transfers. However, the contribution of intergenerational transfers to asset inequality appears to be small.