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For Love or Reward? Characterising Preferences for Giving to Parents in an Experimental Setting

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  • Maria Porter
  • Abi Adams

Abstract

This paper examines the motivation for intergenerational transfers between adult children and their parents, and the nature of preferences for such giving behaviour, in an experimental setting. Participants in our experiment play a series of dictator games with parents and strangers, in which we vary endowments and prices for giving to each recipient. We find that preferences for giving are typically rational. When parents are recipients as opposed to strangers, participants display greater sensitivity to the price of giving, and a higher relative proclivity for giving. Our findings also provide evidence of reciprocal motivations for giving, as players give more to parents who have full information regarding the context in which giving occurs.
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Suggested Citation

  • Maria Porter & Abi Adams, 2016. "For Love or Reward? Characterising Preferences for Giving to Parents in an Experimental Setting," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(598), pages 2424-2445, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:econjl:v:126:y:2016:i:598:p:2424-2445
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/ecoj.2016.126.issue-598
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    Cited by:

    1. Minh Tam Bui & Ivo Vlaev & Katsushi Imai, 2024. "Altruistic Care for the Elderly in Thailand: Does the Social Gender Norm on Altruistic Behavior Matter?," Discussion Paper Series DP2024-37, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    2. Heufer, Jan & Hjertstrand, Per, 2019. "Homothetic preferences revealed," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 602-614.
    3. Ethan Ligon & Laura Schechter, 2020. "Structural Experimentation to Distinguish between Models of Risk Sharing with Frictions in Rural Paraguay," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(1), pages 1-50.
    4. Molina, José Alberto & Ferrer, Alfredo & Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Gracia-Lazaro, Carlos & Moreno, Yamir & Sanchez, Angel, 2016. "The Effect of Kinship on Intergenerational Cooperation: A Lab Experiment with Three Generations," IZA Discussion Papers 9842, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Keigo Inukai & Yuta Shimodaira & Kohei Shiozawa, 2022. "Revisiting CES Utility Functions for Distributional Preferences: Do People Face the Equality–efficiency Trade-off?," ISER Discussion Paper 1195, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    6. Porter, Maria & Nuhu, Ahmed Salim & Nakasone, Eduardo & Maredia, Mywish K., 2025. "Trust, risk, and institutions: experimental evidence from a community of firms in Kenya," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. José Alberto Molina & Alfredo Ferrer & J. Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & Carlos Gracia-Lázaro & Yamir Moreno & Angel Sánchez, 2019. "Intergenerational cooperation within the household: a Public Good game with three generations," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 535-552, June.
    8. Keigo Inukai & Yuta Shimodaira & Kohei Shiozawa, 2022. "Revisiting CES utility functions for distributional preferences: Do people face the equality–efficiency trade-off?," ISER Discussion Paper 1195r, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka, revised Sep 2024.
    9. Müller, Daniel, 2019. "The anatomy of distributional preferences with group identity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 785-807.
    10. Eileen Tipoe & Abi Adams & Ian Crawford, 2022. "Revealed preference analysis and bounded rationality [Consume now or later? Time inconsistency, collective choice and revealed preference]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 313-332.
    11. Wei Zhan & Catherine C. Eckel & Philip J. Grossman, 2020. "Does How We Measure Altruism Matter? Playing Both Roles in Dictator Games," Monash Economics Working Papers 05-20, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    12. Marco Castillo & Mikhail Freer, 2023. "A general revealed preference test for quasilinear preferences: theory and experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(3), pages 673-696, July.
    13. Yoram Halevy & Dotan Persitz & Lanny Zrill, 2018. "Parametric Recoverability of Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(4), pages 1558-1593.
    14. Daniel Müller, 2017. "The anatomy of distributional preferences with group identity," Working Papers 2017-02, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck, revised Mar 2017.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers

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