Who Reaches the Top? Intergenerational Wealth Transfers, Wealth Inequality, and Wealth Mobility in the United States

Abstract

How much do gifts and inheritances shape who reaches the top of the U.S. wealth distribution? I use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) over 2001–2021. Intergenerational wealth transfers concentrate sharply among the wealthy. By their early sixties, 70% of a cohort's top 10% have received a wealth transfer, against 24% of the bottom. Among recipients, those in the top 10% receive wealth transfers worth 16% of lifetime earnings, against 7–11% elsewhere. Yet wealth transfers lower within-cohort wealth inequality by less than one percent. Wealth transfers mechanically account for 21% of intergenerational and 7% of intragenerational wealth mobility. The reason is timing: top 10% recipients were already wealthy before any wealth transfer arrived. Family background and unmeasured early-life support from parents likely matter more.