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Counter-compensatory inter-vivos transfers and parental altruism: compatibility or orthogonality?

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  • Stark, Oded
  • Zhang, Junsen

Abstract

The intersection of the standard altruism hypothesis with the quite strong evidence that bequests tend to be equal suggests that inter-vivos transfers should be strongly compensatory. Yet the available evidence is not in congruence with this implication. It has therefore been inferred that the motive underlying inter-vivos transfers is not parental altruism. In this paper we present an argument showing why parents who are equally altruistic toward their children optimally transfer more to the child whose earnings are higher. We show that rather than being orthogonal to parental altruism, counter-compensating transfers emanate from such altruism. A key point in the analysis is that parents and children are interlinked in a rich web of (vertical and possibly horizontal) transfers, reverse transfers, direct transfers, and indirect transfers.
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  • Stark, Oded & Zhang, Junsen, 2002. "Counter-compensatory inter-vivos transfers and parental altruism: compatibility or orthogonality?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 19-25, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:47:y:2002:i:1:p:19-25
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    1. Paul L. Menchik, 1980. "Primogeniture, Equal Sharing, and the U.S. Distribution of Wealth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(2), pages 299-316.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wolff, Francois-Charles & Laferrere, Anne, 2006. "Microeconomic models of family transfers," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 889-969, Elsevier.
    2. Ye, Maoliang & Yi, Junjian, 2017. "Parental preferences, production technologies, and provision for progeny," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 261-270.
    3. Yang-Ming Chang, 2007. "Transfers and bequests: a portfolio analysis in a Nash game," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 277-295, March.
    4. Stark, Oded, 2013. "On the Economics of Others," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue 5, pages 709-715.
    5. James R. Hines & Niklas Potrafke & Marina Riem & Christoph Schinke, 2019. "Inter vivos transfers of ownership in family firms," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(2), pages 225-256, April.
    6. Nicholas, Aaron, 2012. "Fairness as a constraint on reciprocity: Playing simultaneously as dictator and trustee," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 211-221.
    7. Oded Stark & Anna Nicinska, 2015. "How Inheriting Affects Bequest Plans," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1126-1152, December.
    8. Rodrigo J. Raad & Gilvan R. Guedes, 2014. "Bequest choices under uncertainty," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 504, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    9. Sunha Myong & Jungho Lee, 2019. "Self-financing, Parental Transfer, and College Education," 2019 Meeting Papers 106, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Laetitia Leroy & Antoine Bouet & Elisa Dienesch, 2012. "Trade liberalization, urban-rural remittances and income inequalities in Senegal: micro-foundations and empirical evidence in Computable General Equilibrium analysis," EcoMod2012 3829, EcoMod.
    11. Yang-Ming Chang & Zijun Luo, 2015. "Endogenous division rules as a family constitution: strategic altruistic transfers and sibling competition," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 173-194, January.
    12. Raad, Rodrigo Jardim & Guedes, Gilvan Ramalho, 2015. "Private Transfer Choices under Uncertainty in Human Capital," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 69(1), March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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