Inter-vivos financial transfers and bequests total hundreds of billions of dollars each year, yet our understanding of their magnitudes and determinants is limited. The main goals of this proposed research are to estimate annual and lifetime flows of inter-vivos financial transfers, to find their determinants and to integrate them with estimates of bequest. These results will present a complete picture of intergenerational financial transfers in the older population. The research will develop, analyze, and estimate a formal economic model that combines inter-vivos financial transfers and bequests in a single unified framework. From these estimates we will calculate the degree of substitution between inter-vivos financial transfers and bequests. Based on this model, simulations will show how financial transfers and bequests respond to changes in the environment and to policy changes. For example, it will show how inter-vivos transfers and bequests from the elderly to their children would change as the result of a change in Social Security benefits. The research will be based on data from eight waves of the Health and Retirement Study.
| Hurd, Michael (2009) Intervivos Giving in the Older Population: Who Receives Financial Gifts from the Childless? Ageing Soc 29:1207-1225 |
