JOINT SEMINAR

Japan Forum
Household Saving, Bequest, and Retirement
Behavior in the Era of Population Aging
26 September 2019 | 10:00-12:00
Banque de France, Room 6 - Conference Hall
31 rue Croix des Petits-Champs 75001 Paris
Registration ffj@ehess.fr

Programme
10:00 | The Impact of Bequest Motives on Labor Supply and Retirement Behavior in Japan: A Theoretical and EmpiricalAnalysis
Charles Yuji Horioka (Kobe University)
Discussant: Clémence Berson (Banque de France)

10:45 | Does Marriage Really Help Women Accumulate Wealth? Evidence from Japan
Yoko Niimi (Doshisha University)
Discussant: Bertrand Garbinti (Banque de France, CREST)

11:30 | General Discussion

Chair: Sébastien Lechevalier (EHESS)The Impact of Bequest Motives on Labor Supply and Retirement Behavior inJapan: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
By Charles Yuji Horioka (Kobe University), Emin Gahramanov (American University of Sharjah - Department ofEconomics), Aziz Hayat (Deakin University - School of Accounting, Economics and Finance) & Xueli Tang (DeakinUniversity)
In this paper, we conduct a theoretical and empirical analysis of the impact of bequest motives on the labor supply
behavior of households at the intensive and extensive margins in Japan using micro data from the Preference Parameters
Study of Osaka University in order to shed light on whether or not households planning to leave bequests work more orwork longer than those not planning to leave bequests. We find that respondents with a strategic or exchange bequest
motive supply more labor at the intensive margin but supply less labor at the extensive margin than those without any
bequest motive. Our findings suggest that respondents with a strategic or exchange bequest motive tend to work harderthan others before they retire so that they can earn more and leave a larger bequest to their children in order to be able
to elicit more care and financial assistance from them but that they may want to retire earlier than others so that they
can start receiving care and financial assistance from their children sooner.
Charles Yuji Horioka is Professor at the Research Institute for Economics and Business
Administration, Kobe University, and concurrently Distinguished Research Professor at theAsian Growth Research Institute, Invited Professor at the Institute of Social and Economic
Research, Osaka University, and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic
Research. He previously taught at Stanford, Columbia, Kyoto, and Osaka Universities, andthe University of the Philippines. He served as Co-Editor of the International Economic Review
for 15 years, currently serves as Co-Editor of the Review of Economics of the Household, andreceived the Nakahara Prize of the Japanese Economic Association (given to the best Japanese
economist under the age of 45) in 2001. His research interests include macroeconomics,
household economics, the Japanese economy, and the Asian economies, and he is best
known for his joint paper with the late Martin S. Feldstein on international capital flows (the socalled “Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle”). He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in 1956 andreceived his Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Harvard University.

Does Marriage Really Help Women Accumulate Wealth? Evidence from JapanBy Yoko Niimi (Doshisha University)
Family structure has been undergoing significant changes in many, if not all, developed countries. Fewer and fewer
people marry today than in the past. At the same time, there has been an increase in the average age at first marriage aswell as in the divorce rate. Such trends raise the important question of how singles fare in terms of wealth accumulationin comparison to their married counterparts. This is particularly a relevant question in the context of population aging
as wealth is an important source of funds for living expenses during old age. Using micro data from a Japanese survey,
this paper examines the relationship between marriage and wealth with particular focus on women. By exploiting theavailability of data on personal wealth, it also assesses whether the wealth effect of marriage differs depending onwhether we measure wealth in terms of personal wealth or household wealth, an issue that very few studies haveexamined thus far. According to the empirical results, if wealth is measured in terms of equivalized household net
worth on the assumption that intrahousehold resources are shared equally within married couples, marriage is foundto generally help women accumulate wealth. This raises concern about whether never married women, whose number
is on the rise in Japan, are accumulating sufficient wealth for old age. By contrast, if wealth is measured in terms of
personal net worth based on the actual ownership of assets, marriage is found to be negatively associated with women’swealth holdings. This is largely due to the fact that a relatively small share of household wealthis held in the wife’s name in the case of Japan. These findings underscore the fact that womenin Japan are potentially in a financially vulnerable position even after they marry.
Yoko Niimi is Professor at the Faculty of Policy Studies, Doshisha University, Kyoto,
Japan. She is also concurrently Visiting Professor at the Asian Growth Research Institute,Kitakyushu, Japan. Previously, she worked as Economist at the Asian Development Bankand as Research Associate Professor at the Asian Growth Research Institute. Her fields ofresearch are household economics as well as development economics, and she is particularlyinterested in topics related to household saving, intergenerational transfers, intergenerational
mobility, long-term care, and population aging. She received her Master’s degree and DPhil in
Economics from the University of Sussex and BCom in Business Studies from the Universityof Edinburgh.