IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-03623525.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do public scholarships crowd out parental transfers? Evidence at the intensive margin from France

Author

Listed:
  • Sébastien Grobon

    (COR - Conseil d'Orientation des Retraites, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • François-Charles Wolff

    (TEPP - Théorie et évaluation des politiques publiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Nantes Univ - IAE Nantes - Nantes Université - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - Nantes Université - pôle Sociétés - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université)

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which means-tested scholarships received by higher education students crowd out parental financial support at the intensive margin. We estimate a private transfer function using survey data completed in 2014 in France on a sample of students aged between 18 and 24 and receiving public scholarships. When introducing the amount of public transfer as exogenous covariate, we find that one additional euro of scholarship is associated with a decrease in parental transfers of 0.40-0.55 euro. When considering an instrumental variable strategy which exploits the non-linear schedule of the scholarship amount, we find a larger effect with a decrease of 0.50-0.65 euros. Our results suggest that a substantial part of student scholarship benefits low-income parents through a reduction in the money they give to their student children.

Suggested Citation

  • Sébastien Grobon & François-Charles Wolff, 2022. "Do public scholarships crowd out parental transfers? Evidence at the intensive margin from France," Post-Print halshs-03623525, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03623525
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03623525v3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03623525v3/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabrielle Fack & Julien Grenet, 2015. "Improving College Access and Success for Low-Income Students: Evidence from a Large Need-Based Grant Program," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 1-34, April.
    2. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1063-1093, Nov.-Dec..
    3. Ana Fernandes, 2011. "Altruism, labor supply and redistributive neutrality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1443-1469, October.
    4. Jensen, Robert T., 2004. "Do private transfers 'displace' the benefits of public transfers? Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 89-112, January.
    5. Barro, Robert J, 1974. "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1095-1117, Nov.-Dec..
    6. François-Charles Wolff, 2012. "Les parents sont-ils vraiment si peu altruistes ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 63(2), pages 315-337.
    7. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Emmanuel Saez & Nicholas Turner & Danny Yagan, 2017. "Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility," Working Papers 2017-059, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Donald Cox, 1990. "Intergenerational Transfers and Liquidity Constraints," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 105(1), pages 187-217.
    9. Moffitt, Robert, 1983. "An Economic Model of Welfare Stigma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(5), pages 1023-1035, December.
    10. McGarry, Kathleen, 2016. "Dynamic aspects of family transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-13.
    11. Bernheim, B Douglas & Shleifer, Andrei & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "The Strategic Bequest Motive," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 151-182, July.
    12. Anne Laferrère & David le Blanc, 2004. "Gone with the Windfall: How Do Housing Allowances Affect Student Co-residence?," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 50(3), pages 451-477.
    13. 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 1121-1166, December.
    14. Frank Furstenberg & Saul Hoffman & Laura Shrestha, 1995. "The effect of divorce on intergenerational transfers: New evidence," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(3), pages 319-333, August.
    15. Cox, Donald, 1987. "Motives for Private Income Transfers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(3), pages 508-546, June.
    16. Juarez, Laura, 2009. "Crowding out of private support to the elderly: Evidence from a demogrant in Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 454-463, April.
    17. Kristopher Gerardi & Yuping Tsai, 2014. "The Effect of Social Entitlement Programmes on Private Transfers: New Evidence of Crowding Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 721-746, October.
    18. Schoeni, Robert F, 2002. "Does Unemployment Insurance Displace Familial Assistance?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 110(1-2), pages 99-119, January.
    19. Joshua D. Angrist & Victor Lavy, 1999. "Using Maimonides' Rule to Estimate the Effect of Class Size on Scholastic Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 533-575.
    20. Cox, Donald & Jakubson, George, 1995. "The connection between public transfers and private interfamily transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 129-167, May.
    21. Robert J. Lampman & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1983. "Interfamily Transfers As Alternatives To Government Transfers To Persons," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 29(1), pages 45-66, March.
    22. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-1458, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sébastien Grobon & François-Charles Wolff, 2022. "Do public scholarships crowd out parental transfers? Evidence from France," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22009, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Nikolov, Plamen & Bonci, Matthew, 2020. "Do public program benefits crowd out private transfers in developing countries? A critical review of recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Kristopher Gerardi & Yuping Tsai, 2014. "The Effect of Social Entitlement Programmes on Private Transfers: New Evidence of Crowding Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 721-746, October.
    4. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    5. Steven J. Haider & Kathleen McGarry, 2005. "Recent Trends in Resource Sharing Among the Poor," NBER Working Papers 11612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Aldieri, Luigi & Fiorillo, Damiano, 2015. "Private monetary transfers and altruism: An empirical investigation on Italian families," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    7. Juarez, Laura, 2009. "Crowding out of private support to the elderly: Evidence from a demogrant in Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 454-463, April.
    8. Laura Juarez, 2007. "Altruism, Exchange and Crowding Out of Private Support to the Elderly: Evidence from a Demogrant in Mexico," Working Papers 0707, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    9. Cox, Donald & Jakubson, George, 1995. "The connection between public transfers and private interfamily transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 129-167, May.
    10. Schoeni, Robert F, 2002. "Does Unemployment Insurance Displace Familial Assistance?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 110(1-2), pages 99-119, January.
    11. Sandra García & Jorge Cuartas, 2017. "With a Little Help from my Friends: the Multiplier Effect of Public Subsidies through Private Support," Documentos de trabajo 17647, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    12. Kananurak, Papar & Sirisankanan, Aeggarchat, 2016. "Do Public Transfers Crowd-out Private Transfers? Evidence from the Thai Socio-Economic Panel Survey," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 23(2), December.
    13. Stefan Hochguertel & Henry Ohlsson, 2009. "Compensatory inter vivos gifts," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 993-1023.
    14. Anette Reil-Held, 2006. "Crowding out or crowding in? Public and private transfers in Germany [Substituts ou compléments? Transferts publics et privés en Allemagne]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 263-280, September.
    15. Marta Melguizo Garde, 2007. "La motivación de las transmisiones lucrativas entre generaciones de una familia: modelos teóricos y evidencia empírica," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 181(2), pages 81-118, June.
    16. repec:dgr:uvatin:20070074 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Akın, Ş. Nuray & Leukhina, Oksana, 2015. "Risk-sharing within families: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 270-284.
    18. Stefan Hochguertel & Henry Ohlsson, 2009. "Compensatory inter vivos gifts," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 993-1023.
    19. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolai, 2020. "How Family Transfers Crowd-out Social Assistance in Germany," AMSE Working Papers 2023, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    20. Amihai Glazer & Hiroki Kondo, 2015. "Governmental transfers and altruistic private transfers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 509-533, April.
    21. Pelek, Selin & Polat, Sezgin, 2019. "Exploring inter-household transfers:An assessment using panel data from Turkey," GIAM Working Papers 00-0, Galatasaray University Economic Research Center.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    public scholarship; students; parental transfers; crowding-out effect; altruism; bourses sur critères sociaux; transferts intergénérationnels; effet d'éviction; altruisme; étudiants; enseignement supérieur; aides publiques;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • L38 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Policy
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

    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:hal:journl:halshs-03623525. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.