The last will: Estate divisions as a testament of to whom altruism is directed

We use data on estate divisions to study to whom altruistic preferences are directed. Insofar bequests are given without the prospect of future personal benefits in mind, they are presumably intrinsically motivated. Hence, estate divisions provide a rare opportunity to study intrinsically motivated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2021-07, Vol.16 (7), p.e0254492-e0254492
Main Authors: Elinder, Mikael, Engström, Per, Erixson, Oscar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altruism
Beneficiaries
Biology and Life Sciences
Charities
Donations
Economic aspects
Economics
Empirical analysis
Experiments
Gifts
Offspring
People and Places
Physical Sciences
Social aspects
Social Sciences
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Summary:We use data on estate divisions to study to whom altruistic preferences are directed. Insofar bequests are given without the prospect of future personal benefits in mind, they are presumably intrinsically motivated. Hence, estate divisions provide a rare opportunity to study intrinsically motivated prosocial behavior in the field. The empirical analysis is based on data from digitized estate reports for all individuals in Sweden who passed away in 2002 and 2003. The data show in detail how the decedents distributed their bequests. We find that family members, both genetic (offspring) and non-genetic (partner), receive the lion’s share of the estates. Other relatives, friends and strangers (represented by charities) receive only very small shares of the total estate wealth. The results suggest that intrinsically motivated altruism is primarily directed towards close family members.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0254492