遗产继承对富裕国家财富不平等的影响

中文摘要

本文使用德国、西班牙、法国、意大利、英国和美国的调查数据，分析遗产继承如何影响一系列富裕国家的财富不平等。本文采用影响函数回归方法，计算各国不同规模财富转移的接受者占比小幅提高所产生的反事实效应。结果表明，尽管遗产接受者占比的边际提高通常会缩小财富不平等指标——这印证了文献中的一个普遍发现，即代际转移往往会降低相对财富不平等——但“大额”遗产接受者占比的提高会产生相反的影响。我们通过点估计确定转移开始加剧不平等的门槛，从而界定“大额”在此语境下的含义。我们发现，高于本国转移规模分布第九十五百分位数的转移通常与财富不平等加剧相关。随后，我们将这些门槛与所分析六国现行的遗产税税率表进行比较。比较结果并未呈现统一模式。英国和德国的门槛与免税门槛非常接近；法国和西班牙的门槛略高，而意大利和美国的门槛则低得多。

Abstract

This paper uses survey data from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Great Britain and the United States to analyze how inheritances impact wealth inequality in a range of rich countries. Adopting an influence function regression approach, the paper calculates the counterfactual effects of small increases in the share of recipients of different-sized wealth transfers in each country. Results suggest that while a marginal increase in inheritance recipients generally contracts wealth inequality measures—confirming a common finding in the literature that inter-generational transfers tend to reduce relative wealth inequality—an increase in recipients of ‘large’ inheritances has the opposite effect. We determine what ‘large’ means in this context by point-estimating the thresholds above which transfers become disequalising. We find that transfers above the ninety-fifth percentile of the national transfer distribution are generally associated with an increasing effect on wealth inequality. Such thresholds are then put in perspective against the inheritance tax schedules in place in the six countries analyzed. No unique pattern emerges. While the thresholds are very close to tax exemption thresholds in Britain and Germany, they are somewhat higher in France and Spain and they are much lower in Italy and the United States.