Do inheritances contribute to wealth inequality? Not according to research carried out by Professor Edward Wolff, from New York University, which he presented at a seminar organised by the University of Luxembourg, the EIB Institute and other partners as part of the “Inequality and…” lecture series.
In fact, he said, inheritances tend to reduce overall wealth inequality as they generally represent a higher share of current wealth for poorer families. It is not clear that wealth transfers are responsible for rising overall wealth inequality, added Professor Wolff, pointing out that net worth inequality remained largely unchanged between 1989 and 2007, then rose from 2007 to 2010 (the Great Recession), but was again unchanged from 2010 to 2013. Thus, eliminating inheritances either in full or in part would not be an appropriate measure as simulations suggest that this would actually increase overall wealth inequality.
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