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Motives for Household Private Transfers in Burkina Faso

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Harounan Kaziango

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Abstract

Resource transfers among households have received considerable interest among economists in recent years. Two of the main reasons for the surge of interest in household transfers are the information on human nature conveyed by transfer behavior and the implication on income redistribution policy that private transfer might have. Empirical studies, however, provide mixed results on transfer behavior. This is because previous inquiries were confronted with several estimation issues and have focused on data from developed countries where private transfers are already small. This paper contributes to the literature on transfer behavior by using a multifaceted econometric approach to examine the motives of household transfers in Burkina, a low-income country with a well-documented tradition of gift exchanges. The findings suggest that risk sharing is not central to transfers. Altruistic transfers are apparent for the middle income class, but not a low income level. The evidence implies that crowding out may be minimal at a low income level, suggesting that public transfers targeting poor households may be effective.

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Paper provided by Economic Growth Center, Yale University in its series Working Papers with number 895.

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Length: 54 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2004
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Handle: RePEc:egc:wpaper:895

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Related research
Keywords: Private transfers; Altruism; Exchanges; Risk Sharing;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism
I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," NBER Working Papers 0042, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Cox, Donald, 1987. "Motives for Private Income Transfers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 508-46, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Targeted transfers in poor countries : revisiting the tradeoffs and policy options," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3048, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2001. "Imperfect Commitment, Altruism, And The Family: Evidence From Transfer Behavior In Low-Income Rural Areas," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 389-407, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Cox, Donald & Hansen, Bruce E. & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 2004. "How responsive are private transfers to income? Evidence from a laissez-faire economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 2193-2219, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Altonji, Joseph G & Hayashi, Fumio & Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1997. "Parental Altruism and Inter Vivos Transfers: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1121-66, December.
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Joseph G. Altonji & Hidehiko Ichimura & Taisuke Otsu, 2008. "Estimating Derivatives in Nonseparable Models with Limited Dependent Variables," NBER Working Papers 14161, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Richard P.C. Brown & Eliana V. Jimenez, 2008. "Remittances and Subjective Welfare in a Mixed-Motives Model: Evidence from Fiji," Discussion Papers Series 370, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia. [Downloadable!]
  3. Richard P.C. Brown & Eliana V. Jimenez, 2008. "A Mixed-Motives Model of Private Transfers with Subjectively-Assessed Recipient Need: Evidence from a Poor, Transfer-Dependent Economy," Discussion Papers Series 365, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia. [Downloadable!]
  4. Notten, Geranda & Neubourg, Chris de, 2007. "Managing risks: what Russian households do to smooth consumption?," MPRA Paper 4670, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  5. Eozenou, Patrick, 2008. "The Determinants of Private Transfers in Rural Vietnam," MPRA Paper 12773, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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