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For love or reward? Characterising preference for giving to parents in an experimental setting

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  • Maria Porter

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Abi Adams

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Oxford)

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 fi?nd 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Porter & Abi Adams, 2014. "For love or reward? Characterising preference for giving to parents in an experimental setting," IFS Working Papers W14/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:14/13
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    2. Müller, Daniel, 2019. "The anatomy of distributional preferences with group identity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 785-807.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Heufer, Jan & Hjertstrand, Per, 2019. "Homothetic preferences revealed," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 602-614.
    6. José Alberto Molina & Alfredo Ferrer & José Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal & Carlos Gracia-Lazaro & Yamir Moreno & Angel Sanchez, 2016. "The effect of kinship on intergenerational cooperation: A lab experiment with three generations," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 905, Boston College Department of Economics.
    7. 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.
    8. Mikhail Freer & Marco Castillo, 2021. "A General Revealed Preference Test for Quasilinear Preferences: Theory and Experiments," Papers 2111.01248, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    9. 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, Osaka University.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

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