IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/isfiwp/275619.html

Intergenerational Transfers Economic Growth and Income Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Zilcha, Itzhak

Abstract

We consider an Overlapping-generations economy where the aggregative production process uses physical capital and human capital. The human capital level of each individual is determined by the direct investment in education and some random "ability". The parents' investment in the education of their offspring is motivated by altruism. We distinguish between two types of transfers: Investment of parents in the education of their offspring, which affects her future income, and the direct capital transfer (the 'bequest motive). We show that the intensity of each type of altruism plays an important role on the equilibrium growth and the income distributions, but the results differ significantly. Comparing competitive equilibria from the same initial capital and human capital distributions we derive the following results: (a) When altruism is more 'education-inclined', then economic growth is higher and the intragenerational income distributions are more equal (less equal), in all periods, if the aggregate production function's elasticity of substitution is larger (smaller) than 1; (b) When altruism is more 'bequestinclined', the growth rate is lower and the impact on the intragenerational distributions of income depends on the size of the elasticity of substitution. Public provision of education (financed by taxing wage incomes) reverses the results in (b).

Suggested Citation

  • Zilcha, Itzhak, 1996. "Intergenerational Transfers Economic Growth and Income Distribution," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275619, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:isfiwp:275619
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.275619
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/275619/files/TEL-AVIV-FSWP-256.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.275619?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Modigliani, Franco, 1988. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers and Life Cycle Saving in the Accumulation of Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 15-40, Spring.
    3. Kotlikoff, Laurence J & Summers, Lawrence H, 1981. "The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Accumulation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 706-732, August.
    4. Glomm, Gerhard & Ravikumar, B, 1992. "Public versus Private Investment in Human Capital Endogenous Growth and Income Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 818-834, August.
    5. Boyan Jovanovic, 1995. "Learning and Growth," NBER Working Papers 5383, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Laitner, John, 1992. "Random earnings differences, lifetime liquidity constraints, and altruistic intergenerational transfers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 135-170, December.
    7. Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1988. "Intergenerational Transfers and Savings," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 41-58, Spring.
    8. Tomes, Nigel, 1981. "The Family, Inheritance, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 928-958, October.
    9. Karni, Edi & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1995. "Technological Progress and Income Inequality," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 5(2), pages 277-294, March.
    10. Loury, Glenn C, 1981. "Intergenerational Transfers and the Distribution of Earnings," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 843-867, June.
    11. Eckstein, Zvi & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1994. "The effects of compulsory schooling on growth, income distribution and welfare," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 339-359, July.
    12. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ana I. Moro-Egido, 2004. "Educational System, Altruism and Inequality in the Distribution of Income," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2004/46, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zilcha, Itzhak, 2003. "Intergenerational transfers, production and income distribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 489-513, March.
    2. Laitner, John & Juster, F Thomas, 1996. "New Evidence on Altruism: A Study of TIAA-CREF Retirees," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 893-908, September.
    3. William G. Gale & John Karl Scholz, 1994. "Intergenerational Transfers and the Accumulation of Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 145-160, Fall.
    4. Kaganovich, Michael & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1999. "Education, social security, and growth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 289-309, February.
    5. Gradstein, Mark & Justman, Moshe, 1997. "Democratic Choice of an Education System: Implications for Growth and Income Distribution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 169-183, July.
    6. Shuanglin Lin, 2003. "The Effect of Public Transfers on Physical and Human Capital Accumulation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 31(6), pages 669-693, November.
    7. Viaene, Jean-Marie & Zilcha, Itzhak, 2002. "Capital markets integration, growth and income distribution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 301-327, February.
    8. Armellini, Mauricio & Basu, Parantap, 2010. "Altrusim. Education Subsidy and Growth," MPRA Paper 23653, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Viaene, J.M. & Zilcha, I., 1997. "Capital Markets Integration , Growth and Income Distribution: A Dynamic Analysis," Papers 31-97, Tel Aviv.
    10. Huggett, Mark, 1996. "Wealth distribution in life-cycle economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 469-494, December.
    11. John Laitner & Amanda Sonnega, 2010. "Intergenerational Transfers in the Health and Retirement Study Data," Working Papers wp238, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    12. Massimo Giannini, 1998. "Human Capital and Income Distribution Dynamics," GE, Growth, Math methods 9802004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Mark Gradstein & Moshe Justman, 1996. "The political economy of mixed public and private schooling: A dynamic analysis," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 297-310, July.
    14. Jean‐Marie Viaene & Itzhak Zilcha, 2009. "Human Capital and Inequality Dynamics: The Role of Education Technology," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(304), pages 760-778, October.
    15. Vincenzo Lombardo, 2008. "Income distribution and Growth: A Critical Survey," Working Papers 11_2008, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    16. Mauro Baranzini, 2005. "Modigliani's life-cycle theory of savings fifty years later," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(233-234), pages 109-172.
    17. Yew, Siew Ling & Zhang, Jie, 2013. "Socially optimal social security and education subsidization in a dynastic model with human capital externalities, fertility and endogenous growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 154-175.
    18. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2013. "The relationship between economic growth and inequality," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 113-139, August.
    19. Carmen CAMACHO & I-Ling SHEN, 2010. "Public Education for the Children Left Behind," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2010006, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    20. Li, Bei & Zhang, Jie, 2015. "Efficient education subsidization and the pay-as-you-use principle," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 41-50.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:isfiwp:275619. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fotauil.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.