Wealth Inequality and the Prospects for Increasing Intergenerational Transfers

Stephen L. Morgan, Cornell University
John C. Scott, Cornell University

Analyzing cohorts from the Health and Retirement Survey between 1992 and 2002, we (1) investigate the components of the growth of wealth inequality across households in the 1990s and (2) assess cohort changes in the frequency, intensity, and determinants of intergenerational transfers. Based on these results, we then offer a range of predictions about the increasing prospects for the self-perpetuation of wealth inequality across family dynasties.