Intergenerational altruism and house prices: evidence from bequest tax reforms in Italy

Abstract

The degree of intergenerational altruism is estimated in a benchmark Barro-type OLG framework with imperfect altruism, exploiting the exogenous variation generated by reforms of the tax treatment of bequests and inter vivos real estate donations enacted in Italy between 2000 and 2001. Using longitudinal information on the housing stock and house prices in 13 large Italian cities between 1993 and 2004, the structural parameter of interest is estimated via the effect of the reform on house prices. We estimate a degree of intergenerational altruism ranging between 0.2 and 0.3, a magnitude consistent with existing parameterizations for the US economy.