Expected wealth transfers and consumption across the wealth distribution in Europe

This article presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between expected wealth transfers (inheritances and gifts) and consumption, explicitly considering the distribution of consumption and wealth. While there are many empirical analyses of unexpected wealth transfers, it is unusual to analyze consumption with respect to expected wealth transfers because of the lack of information on expected inheritances or gifts. Using microdata for 17 European countries from the 2014 wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey, we find that households expecting a wealth transfer consume as if they were in a higher wealth decile. This increase in consumption differs in size depending on household wealth. We verify that this result is not related to risk preferences or liquidity constraints. These results provide support for consumption smoothing as predicted by the life-cycle model, although the extent of the smoothing depends on the position of the household in the wealth distribution. •Expectations on future wealth transfers increase the current consumption of households.•The increasing consumption is not constant across the wealth distribution.•The results follow the life-cycle model conditional on the position of the household in wealth distribution.•These results are not related to risk preferences or liquidity constraints.•The pattern by country is the same but the size of the effect varies across the analyzed countries.