It is of frequent concern that the United States and the United Kingdom have very low rates of personal savings, whereas several other advanced industrialized countries – particularly Japan, France, and Italy – have high rates of personal savings. These essays address the salient questions suggested by this contrast. Do different attitudes to bequests explain the difference in the saving rates among these countries? What are the different kinds of bequest – real estate, financial assets, or human capital? Is it possible to conclude that bequests affect the formation of fiscal policies, or are they neutral with respect to fiscal policies? Finally, what is the relationship between bequests and public pensions?

In an effort to answer these questions the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) organized an international conference on savings and bequests in Tokyo in March 1992. Among the distinguished specialists from Europe, Japan, and North America who presented papers on the subject were: Hiroyuki Chuma, Michael Hurd, David Wise, Toshihiro Ihori, Laurence Kotlikoff, Pierre Pestieau, Toshiaki Tachibakanki, and Seiji Takata. This book is an outgrowth of that conference. Many countries are discussed in this book, including Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.