Altruism and Beyond: An Economic Analysis of Transfers and Exchanges within Families and Groups

This book employs economic methodology to study the motives for and the repercussions of transfers and exchanges within families, between generations, and within groups. The book shows how the allocative behavior and wellbeing of one family member depend on his altruistic link with another family member, how the timing of the intergenerational transfer of the family productive asset affects the recipient's incentive to engage in human capital formation, and how transfers from an adult to his parents impinge on future transfers to him from his own children. In addition, the book shows that under asymmetric information high-skill migrant workers make transfers to low-skill would-be migrants in order to lure them to stay put, and that under incomplete information a group-specific informational edge - lower recognition costs - results in a superior exchange outcome. Finally, altruism, which in the beginning of the book is assumed, is explained: the transmission to or probable acquisition by children of parental traits and the exchange between siblings are shown to result in a stable equilibrium wherein no agent behaves nonaltruistically. The book studies both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives for transfer behavior. In addition, it traces some of the market repercussions of intrafamilial, intergenerational, and intragroup transfers and exchanges.