Do First‐Time House Buyers Receive Financial Transfers from Their Parents?*

Using Danish longitudinal data with information about wealth for a sample of first‐time house buyers and their parents, we test whether there are direct financial transfers from parents to children in connection with the house purchase, or in connection with unemployment spells occurring just after the purchase, when children typically hold few liquid assets. First, we document that child and parent financial resources are correlated. Then, we introduce conditioning variables and exploit the panel aspect of the data to also condition on fixed unobserved factors, which arguably govern preferences and/or productivity. We find no evidence of direct financial transfers.     

Return to work after cancer and pre-cancer job dissatisfaction

We investigate the association between pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and return-to-work probability 3 years after a cancer diagnosis. We use a Danish data set combining administrative data and a survey to breast and colon cancer survivors. We find that the return-to-work probability has a negative correlation with pre-cancer job dissatisfaction with mental demands (where the correlation is driven by the high-educated) and with physical demands and the superior (where the correlation is driven by the low-educated). Educational gradients in the probability of returning to work after cancer are not significantly affected by controlling for pre-cancer job dissatisfaction and pre-cancer ability to work.     

THE REDISTRIBUTIVE IMPACT OF ALTERNATIVE INCOME MAINTENANCE SCHEMES: A MICROSIMULATION STUDY USING SWISS DATA

Taking a benchmark scenario, the current situation in Switzerland, and using a microsimulation technique, we compare the effectiveness of various income maintenance schemes for reducing inequality and poverty. A full negative income tax allowance designed to eliminate poverty is shown to reduce income inequality most drastically. An integrated federal linear tax rate of 62 percent is required to make it viable. Aggregate work hours are reduced by approximately 10 percent and average disposable income falls by 9.3 percent under such circumstances. A participation income restricted to adults in employment and covering 50 percent of subsistence costs is however shown to result in an unambiguous social welfare improvement over the current situation in Switzerland.