Grandstands. As we know, inheritance only benefits a minority. A third of the French population inherits nothing, and it is not the relaxation of inheritance tax that will change anything. Within the remaining two-thirds, 10% of the beneficiaries of inheritances and donations alone receive more than half of the heritage transferred to France. Increase the amount of tax deductions on donations (€200,000 instead of €100,000 per child currently) as well as their frequency (every six years or every ten years instead of every fifteen years), as proposed by some candidates, will favor the maintenance of wealth in the hands of certain families and, thus, the reproduction of our class society.
Another inequality, less known to the general public, is also played out in these electoral promises. In France, between 1998 and 2015, wealth inequality between men and women went from 9% to 16% (“ Inequalities and the individualization of wealth », Journal of Public Economics No. 184, 2020). Everything indicates that this gap, which has already almost doubled in less than twenty years, will widen. This wealth inequality between women and men is partly due to income inequalities, which persist. But it is also explained by inequalities in matters of succession.
In France today, women do not inherit like men. It may seem surprising. The Civil Code, since 1804, has prevented disinheriting one’s children and requires transmitting equal shares to them, regardless of their sex or birth order (only a portion of the patrimony, the “disposable quota”, can be freely allocated). In addition to the constraints of the law, there is a strong norm of equal treatment of children by their parents. How do men find themselves favored?
Our research, based on field work in notarial offices and in families, as well as on the use of data from the INSEE “Heritage” surveyshowed that sons do not inherit the same as daughters.
The eldest sons, in particular (even today!), inherit more of the “structuring” assets of the family heritage, which are more likely to appreciate over time: company shares, land or real estate. They also benefit more often from advance donations, which allow them to invest and accumulate earlier. For their part, the girls wait for the death of their parents to receive monetary compensation which is not equivalent, neither symbolically nor economically.
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