THE INTERGENERATIONAL PROPAGATION OF WEALTH INEQUALITY

This paper highlights the crucial role of demographic assumptions in models of the intergenerational transmission of wealth inequality. Specifically, we show that Alan Blinder's surprising predictions that bequest and mating practices can sustain but cannot cause wealth inequality are extremely fragile. We show that these predictions depend on a common and apparently minor demographic assumption: fixed sex ratios in family composition. We implement the Blinder model as an agent-based simulation and show that without this demographic assumption such familial institutions are causative for wealth inequality, even in the long run.