中文摘要
本文旨在衡量并理解遗产在塑造财富不平等中的作用。我们采用准实验设计和瑞典行政数据，发现普通继承人会在十年内耗尽其遗产，而富裕继承人的遗产则保持完好。这种不同的耗减速度并非源于消费或劳动供给反应的差异，而是源于继承财富回报率的差异。在获得遗产时，遗产会降低财富不平等的相对指标，如顶端份额或百分位数之比。从理论上看，这种不平等程度的下降既可能源于遗产分布较为集中，也可能源于拥有富裕父母的概率相近（即代际流动性较高）。从实证上看，前一种力量在瑞典更为显著。然而，在十年之内，这一效应会发生逆转：由于不同的耗减速度会随时间推移扩大继承财富的不平等，遗产反而会加剧财富不平等。这意味着，遗产税只有通过对富裕继承人征税，才能降低长期财富不平等。
Abstract
Abstract This article aims to measure and understand the role of inheritances in shaping wealth inequality. We use a quasi-experimental design and Swedish administrative data to document that the average heir depletes her inheritance within a decade while the inheritances of wealthy heirs remain intact. These different depletion rates are not due to different consumption or labour supply responses but due to different rates of return on inherited wealth. Upon their receipt, inheritances reduce relative measures of wealth inequality, such as top shares or percentile ratios. Theoretically, this reduction in inequality could be due to either a compressed inheritance distribution or similar chances of having wealthy parents (high intergenerational mobility). Empirically, the first force is more significant in Sweden. Within a decade, however, the effect is reversed: inheritances increase wealth inequality since the different depletion rates widen the inequality in inherited wealth over time. This implies that inheritance taxation can reduce long run wealth inequality only through the taxation of wealthy heirs.