Rawley Z. Heimer
Menu

Research › Saving, retirement, and inheritance

Saving, retirement, and inheritance

How people accumulate, spend down, and pass on wealth over their lives: saving for retirement, beliefs about longevity, bequests and inheritances, private family foundations, and the effects of wealth shocks.

Related terms: life-cycle model, retirement saving, mortality beliefs, bequest motives, inheritances, estate taxes, private foundations, cash windfalls, entrepreneurship.

Published papers

  1. Shale Shocked: Cash Windfalls and Household Debt Repayment

    With J. Anthony Cookson and Erik P. Gilje. Journal of Financial Economics.

    Households that receive cash windfalls mostly pay down debt, and the effect is three times larger for subprime borrowers than for prime borrowers.

  2. Personal Wealth, Self-Employment, and Business Ownership

    With Aymeric Bellon, J. Anthony Cookson, and Erik P. Gilje. Review of Financial Studies.

    Large cash windfalls raise business formation but do not make people more likely to become self-employed.

  3. YOLO: Mortality Beliefs and Household Finance Puzzles

    With Kristian Ove R. Myrseth and Raphael S. Schoenle. Journal of Finance.

    Young people underestimate their chances of survival and older people overestimate theirs, which helps explain under-saving and slow retirement drawdown.

  4. Subjective Beliefs, Saving, and Spending for Retirement

    Chapter in Retirement Saving, Investment, and Spending: New Lessons from Behavioral Research.

    Reviews how beliefs about the future, especially about one’s own survival, change the predictions of standard models of retirement saving and spending.

Working papers

  1. Five Facts about Bequest Motives

    With Xiang Li. Working paper.

    Bequest motives are stronger for people with heirs and the very wealthy, follow a U-shape over life, and people overestimate the bequests they will leave.

  2. The Wealth Draw-down of the Fabulously Rich: Insights from Private Family Foundations

    With Changhyun Ahn. Draft available on request.

    When the eldest member of a very wealthy family dies, the family foundation roughly doubles in size, but charitable giving lags far behind.

  3. Waiting for Wealth: Inheritances and Household Savings

    With Eirik Eylands Brandsaas and Mateo Velásquez-Giraldo. Draft available on request.

    Expected inheritances raise consumption and reduce saving long before they arrive, and leaving them out makes standard models overstate how patient households are.

Other research topics