Gender Consequences of Covid-19 with Equal Bequest Laws 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had profound distributional consequences in many dimensions. One important dimension that has received relatively little attention is the impact on intergenerational transfers (inter-vivos and bequests). We explore the gender distribution consequences of a mortality probability shock in the context of equal-inheritance division laws – which affect bequest distribution for most of the global population. We first develop a theoretical model of likely responses to the mortality shock and then simulate the model to explore magnitudes and obtain predictions for some complex interactions that are not tractable theoretically. We find that in the context of equal-division laws and son-bias, increased death probability due to Covid-19 will shift resources to inter-vivos transfers to sons, at the expense of daughters. The simulations reveal an unexpected non-monotonicity in the ratio of total sons to daughters total transfers as death probabilities increase. JEL Codes: D1, D13, D15, D31, D64, I1, I19, J14, J16, K1, K36, K38