This paper analyzes the joy of giving bequest motive in which the utility obtained from leaving a bequest depends only on the size of the bequest. It exploits the fact that this formulation can be interpreted as a reduced form of an altruistic bequest motive to derive a relation between the...

The Ricardian Equivalence Theorem, which is the proposition that changes in the timing of lump-sum taxes have no effect on consumption or capital accumulation, depends on the existence of operative altruistic motives for intergenerational transfers. These transfers can be bequests from parents...

Various tax policies provide consumers with forms of insurance. Social security has the payoff characteristics of an annuity. Income tax provides consumers with a degree of income insurance because the government shares part of the individual’s income risk. Redistributive taxes can be used to...

This paper introduces a utility function that nests three classes of utility functions: (1) time-separable utility functions; (2) "catching up with the Joneses" utility functions that depend on the consumer’s level of consumption relative to the lagged cross-sectional average level of...

Various tax policies provide consumers with forms of insurance. Social security has the payoff characteristics of an annuity. Income tax provides consumers with a degree of income insurance because the government shares part of the individual’s income risk. Redistributive taxes can be used to...

The Ricardian Equivalence Theorem, which is the proposition that changes in the timing of lump-sum taxes have no effect on consumption or capital accumulation, depends on the existence of operative altruistic motives for intergenerational transfers. These transfers can be bequests from parents...

An individual investor’s demands for risky capital and riskless bonds depend on the investor’s subjective beliefs about the payoff to risky capital. This paper determines equilibrium asset prices and returns in a capital market in which investors have heterogeneous subjective expectations of...

This paper presents a general equilibrium model with logarithmic preferences and technology. If the non-negativity constraint on bequests is strictly binding, then the bequest motive is characterized as inoperative. After determining the conditions for operative and inoperative bequest motives,...