How do bequests explain differences in savings behavior between countries?

This collection of essays, coauthored with other distinguished economists, offers new perspectives on saving, intergenerational economic ties, retirement planning, and the distribution of wealth. The book links life-cycle microeconomic behavior to important macroeconomic outcomes, including the roughly 50 percent postwar decline in America's rate of saving and its increasing wealth inequality. The book traces these outcomes to the government's five-decade-long policy of transferring, in the form of annuities, ever larger sums from young savers to old spenders. The book presents new theoretical and empirical analyses of altruism that rule out the possibility that private intergenerational transfers have offset those by the government.While rational life-cycle behavior can explain broad economic outcomes, the book also shows that a significant minority of households fail to make coherent life-cycle saving and insurance decisions. These mistakes are compounded by reliance on conventional financial planning tools, which the book compares with Economic Security Planner (ESPlanner), a new life-cycle financial planning software program. The application of ESPlanner to U.S. data indicates that most Americans approaching retirement age are saving at much lower rates than they should be, given potential major cuts in Social Security benefits.

Two widows, six kiddos, and a will that leaves them a massive cattle ranch, but only if they work it for a year. Abigail and Amanda may have married brothers, but they have almost nothing else in common (and really, they never did get along very well). After their husbands both pass away, they have no reason to interact. Their connection drops to an awkward phone call on birthdays and an exchange of holiday cards. Until an eccentric uncle of their husbands' leaves a massive cattle ranch to the women's minor children. . . if they work the ranch themselves. A ranch that's located near a small town on the border of Wyoming that isn’t too keen on outsiders. They're both going to turn the bequest down, clearly. It’s not like either of them could properly raise their kids or find love again in a backwater province like Birch Creek. But when things at home change dramatically—for both moms—they decide to give it a try. . . just for the summer. What could possibly go wrong in a mere three months? (Or more importantly... what might go right?) Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Pamela Kelley said, "B. E. Baker takes you right to the heart of the small town that two widowed sisters-in-law land in very unexpectedly. Can they survive the year they need to spend there to keep it? I really enjoyed reading Bridget's romantic women's fiction debut." What are the experts saying? Publisher's Weekly says, "The Bequest [is] an endearing work of women's romantic fiction and the first in the Birch Creek Ranch series. [It] offers a compelling setup as two wildly different women are thrown together in the aftermath of their husbands' deaths. Baker's prose is candid, warm, and allows readers to feel immediately connected to the two protagonists. Baker brings freshness and fun to the story of two 'couldn't be more different' individuals who find they have more in common than they'd anticipated." B.E. Baker is an amazing storyteller! Wow! Women's fiction at its best. When you open this book, you might want some snacks handy, because you won't be able to stop until you finish. Highly recommend! --USA Today Bestselling Author, Tamie Dearen A sweet, feel-good story! Loved reading about these two women forging a new life for themselves and their children with all the challenges and joys of a ranch! --USA Today Bestselling Author, Amelia Addler I'm a huge fan of Baker's writing and this book is no exception. At once both a BIG story and one that's very intimate, you'll get two women's stories as they're forced together because of a will. Relocating to a ranch, these sisters-in-law and their families face challenges that bring them closer together and change the course of their lives. A great read if you love family sagas! --USA Today Bestselling Author, Emma St. Clair I was an early reader for this new book. If you like family focused women's fiction—and a ranch setting, you'll enjoy this story of two widowed sisters-in-laws and their children as they spend a summer on a Montana ranch that they may inherit. --USA Today and Wallstreet Journal Bestselling Author, Pamela Kelley kw: romantic women's fiction, women's fiction, family saga, saga, romance, clean romance, contemporary romance, ranch life, small town romance, western romance, cowboy romance, big city girl, bequest, birch creek ranch series, be baker, bridget baker, B. E. Baker, birch creek ranch, rock star romance, widow, later in life romance, romance after forty, mature romance, clean and wholesome romance, book club fiction, series, women's fiction series, romantic comedy, beach read, binge book, small town, love story, family drama, virgin river, Virgin River, Robyn carr, virgin river robyn carr, virgin river novel, jan moran, pam kelly, pam kelley, lilly mirren, jessie newton, hope holloway, romance; widows; life after loss; seasoned romance; hot cowboys; second chance romance; single mom romance; family relationships; love after loss; loving again; healing after loss; career women find love, cowboy romance, later in life romance, clean contemporary romance, romantic comedy, clean rom com, lisa kleypas, robyn carr, nicholas sparks, jan moran, elin hilderbrand, elin hildebrand, lilly mirren, nora roberts, danielle steele, carolyn brown, nantucket, susan Elizabeth philips, rachel hanna, lisa kleypas, debbie macomber, for fans of debbie macomber, pamela kelley, lilly mirren, nora roberts, danielle steele, jan moran, rachel hanna, elin hildebrand, nicholas sparks, holiday romance, christmas romance, free first in series, mary kay andrews, ken follett, amy harmon, karen kingsbury, elin hilderbrand, brenda novak, jennifer weiner, nancy thayer, dorothea benton frank.

The debate on inheritance and inheritance taxation has always been linked with the " efficiency versus equity issue". Some consider inheritance taxes as highly appropriate means to bring forth more economic equality, especially equality in starting conditions. Others openly doubt the effectiveness of inheritance taxes in this domain, and point out that the negative effects may outweigh the positive. Some go as far as to say that high inheritance taxes threaten fundamental ethical values and should therefore be abolished. In this book both economists and philosophers try to disentangle these and related theoretical issues. It gives an overview of what economists and philosophers have to say on the matter, and confronts and discusses two radically opposed reform proposals.

Argues that for the first time in history we're in a position to end extreme poverty throughout the world, both because of our unprecedented wealth and advances in technology, therefore we can no longer consider ourselves good people unless we give more to the poor. Reprint.

The rapid emergence of East Asia as an important geopolitical-economic entity has been one of the most visible and striking changes in the international economy in recent years. With that emergence has come an increased need for understanding the problems of interdependence. As a step toward meeting this need, the National Bureau of Economic Research joined with the Korea Development Institute to sponsor this volume, which focuses on the complexities of tax reform in a global economy. Experts from Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and Thailand, as well as the United States, Canada, and Israel examine the major tax programs of the 1980s and their domestic and international economic effects. The analyses reveal similarities between the United States and countries in East Asia in political constraints on policy making, and taken together they show how growing interdependence interacts with domestic economic and political concerns to affect issues as politically vital as tax reform. Economists, policymakers, and members of the business community will benefit from these studies.

The evolution of private saving and its interaction with government fiscal policy play an important and complex role in the development of the national economy. To gain insight into this process, we must first understand the savings behavior of individual households and the ways in which they aggregate over the entire population to produce national saving. Italy provides an ideal laboratory in which to assess the impact of government and private transfer, imperfections in the capital markets, productivity growth and shifting demographic patterns on the saving behavior of individual households and on their aggregation into total private saving. The book draws on the Italian experience and data, and offers new findings on many aspects of the process of saving determination.