Inheritance Laws 

  Jason Anastasopoulos , guest blogger 

 Question: Many political philosophers that focused on questions of property (including Plato) believed that equality of conditions were necessary for the development of a virtuous citizenry and virtuous leaders. The key to creating this equality of conditions, they argued,  was the implementation of strict inheritance laws limiting the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next. Does anyone know of any quantitative models or empirical studies that examine the interaction between social stratification and inheritance laws?  If you do, email me at janastasopoulo@law.harvard.edu.