Bequest Process Calibration

[TODO: This chapter needs to be finished.]

This chapter describes how we calibrate the distribution of total bequests \(BQ_t\) to each living household of age \(s\) and lifetime income group \(j\). The matrix that governs this distribution \(\zeta_{j,s}\) is seen in the household budget constraint (17).

A large number of papers study the effects of different bequest motives and specifications on the distribution of wealth, though there is no consensus regarding the true bequest transmission process. See [De Nardi and Yang, 2014], [De Nardi, 2004], [Nishiyama, 2002], [Laitner, 2001], [Gokhale et al., 2000], [Gale and Scholz, 1994], [Hurd, 1989], [Venti and Wise, 1988], [Kotlikoff and Summers, 1981], and [Wolff, 2015].