@techreport{Hendricks2005important,
abstract = {This paper investigates the role of discount rate heterogeneity for wealth inequality. The key
idea is to infer the distribution of preference parameters from the observed age profile of
wealth inequality. The contribution of preference heterogeneity to wealth inequality can then
be measured using a quantitative life-cycle model.
I find that discount rate heterogeneity increases the Gini coefficient of wealth by 0.06 to 0.11.
The share of wealth held by the richest 1% of households rises by 0.03 to 0.13. The larger
changes occur when altruistic bequests are large and when preferences are strongly persistent
across generations. Discount rate heterogeneity also helps account for the large wealth
inequality observed among households with similar lifetime earnings.},
author = {Lutz Hendricks},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {E2; 330; wealth inequality; preference heterogeneity; Verm\"{o}gensverteilung; Lebenseinkommen; Zeitpr\"{a}ferenz; Gini-Koeffizient; Theorie; USA},
language = {eng},
number = {1604},
title = {How important is discount rate heterogeneity for wealth inequality?},
type = {CESifo working papers},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/19068},
year = {2005}
}
