German Historical Institute Washington DC, Conveners: Jürgen Dinkel (Univ. of Gießen), Simone Lässig (GHI Washington), Vanessa Ogle (Univ. of Pennsylvannia) (Web)

Time: 14-16.09.2017
German Historical Institute Washington DC
Proposals due: 10.04.2017

American baby boomers stand to inherit about $11.6 trillion in the coming years. The distribution of this wealth will be highly unequal, however. Households in the wealthiest decile will receive by far the biggest inheritances, an estimated $1.5 million per heir on average. By contrast, heirs in the poorest decile will receive an average of $27,000. Enormous and unequal intergenerational wealth transfers are expected in other regions of the world as well.

Despite the substantial contribution of inheritance practices to social inequality in societies and individual families, we know very little about the distribution of inherited money and assets in the period since the late nineteenth century. Thomas Piketty’s bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century has spurred heightened interest in the question of inherited wealth and its relation to rising inequality over the course of the past century. Read more and source … (Web)