WEALTH-ACCUMULATION PROCESS BY INCOME CLASS

The paper examines the empirical data on income and wealth in Japan carefully. The preliminary examination suggested the importance of intergenerational wealth transfers not only for high-income earners but also for some low-income earners. A simple model of savings behavior with a bequest motive was applied in order to estimate indirectly the amount of intergenerational wealth transfer by income class. This indirect method was reasonably successful in revealing the relative importance of intergenerational wealth transfers by income class in Japan, where no direct data on intergenerational wealth transfers are available. © 1991.