No abstract

This study quantifies individuals’ responses to inheritance receipt in terms of their retirement, labour supply, and consumption decisions. Doing so is relevant for appraising the potential effects of tax and pension reforms, as well as for the assessment of how inheritances contribute to total wealth and to wealth inequality. I start out by developing a simple version of the life cycle model that explains how individuals trade-off between the different possible responses. I test the model using individual panel data from the Survey on Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe. These data allow accounting for expectations about inheritances and retirement in the analysis. All estimated effects are not significantly different from zero and they indicate absence of large response in terms of labour supply and retirement.

In this study, we investigate the assimilation of EU migrants via the receipt of public transfers using high‐quality administrative panel data for the Netherlands. Research on this topic has relevant implications for EU expansion policy, migration policy, and perception of migrants in host societies. The data that we employ contain comprehensive information on all public transfers that individuals can receive. Results show that free entry from other EU countries decreases both the share of individuals who receive public transfers and the average amount received. The differences between EU migrants and natives are particularly large during the first years after arrival in the Netherlands, and become indistinguishable from zero after seven years. This indicates a process of gradual assimilation into public transfer receipt. Further exploration using an Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition reveals important composition effects that are due mostly to differences in age and variables related to family structure.