The Strategic Bequest Motive

A user of my intermediate macro text writes to me:

I always teach the strategic bequest motive in intermediate macro, mostly because it gets the students to think more deeply about why people save. While I have never really thought that strategic bequests are an important determinant of savings behavior, this story in today's NY Times moved my priors somewhat.

If you don't recall what the strategic bequest motive is, you can look it up in my text, or read the original research at this link.