Sibling donation games: pure-altruism,strategic-altruism,and the interaction of familial and public transfers

Accompanying the rapidly aging populations of high-income countries are increasing transfers of time and money from adult children to elderly parents (ascending altruism). In this paper we first develop a theoretical model to characterize the general reaction-functions of two adult siblings choosing transfer amounts (possibly time) to their needy parents under two alternative motivations: pure altruism and strategic altruism. We show that transfers are strategic substitutes under pure altruism and strategic complements under strategic altruism. The Nash-equilibrium generates distinct predictions associated with each motivation and we then explore some implications of our findings. A result with potentially important policy implications is that the response of children transfers to increased pension payments to the parents depends on the children's motivations. This contrasts with much of the literature which assumes transfers decrease with increased pension payments.     

Remittances and child labour in Ghana: Does the gender of the household head matter?

This study investigates the effect of remittance income on child labour and the role of gender in Ghana. Data were sourced from the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 6. In order to solve the issue of endogeneity, we adopt the instrumental variable approach. The study finds evidence that, irrespective of whoever is the head of the household, the total effect of remittances on child labour is negative. However, the negative effect is much higher for female-headed households. It is recommended that more mobile money transfer outlets be established and the cost of transferring money be reduced to the barest minimum so as to enable households to maximise the benefits of the remittances they receive. Furthermore, financial transfers should be given to female household heads upon the condition of school attendance by their children so as to reduce child labour.     

Is It True Love? Altruism Versus Exchange in Time and Money Transfers

This paper investigates what motivates intergenerational inter-vivos time and money transfers. We consider a model in which transfers may be driven not only by altruism, but also by exchange considerations. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to discriminate between the two motives. We show that both if we consider money transfers from parents to children and time transfers from children to parents, the empirical evidence rejects pure altruism in favor of exchange. This result has important policy implications on the effectiveness of formal care provision as a substitute for informal care and on the impact of taxation on transfers.     

Sibling Rivalry and Strategic Parental Transfers

This paper develops a noncooperative Nash model in which two siblings compete for their parents' financial transfers. Treating sibling rivalry as a “rent-seeking contest” and using a Tullock-Skaperdas contest success function, we derive the conditions under which more financial resources are transferred to the sibling with lower earnings. We find that parental transfers are compensatory and that the family as an institution serves as an “income equalizer.” Within a sequential game framework, we characterize the endogeneity of parental transfers and link it to parents' income, altruism, and children's supply of merit goods (e.g., parent-child companionship or child services). We show that merit goods are subject to a “moral hazard” problem from the parents' perspective.     

Is the eldest son different? The residential choice of siblings in Japan

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the living arrangements (coresidence behavior) of elderly parents and their children (whether elderly parents live with their children, and if so, with which child) in Japan using micro-data from a household survey. Our results provide support for all four explanations of coresidence behavior but especially for the life cycle and dynasty models (both of which assume selfishly motivated parents) and social norms and traditions: the fact that parents who were self-employed before retirement are more likely to live with their children, the fact that parents are less likely to live with sons who adopt their wife's surname, and the fact that parents are more likely to live with daughters whose husbands adopt their surname constitute evidence in favor of the dynasty model. The fact that parents who were (relatively wealthy) executives before retirement and parents who are homeowners are more likely to live with their children and the fact that parents are more likely to live with less educated children constitute evidence in favor of the selfish life cycle model (or the altruism model). And the fact that parental attitudes toward their children affect their coresidence behavior, the fact that parents are more likely to live with their eldest child if their eldest child is a son, and the fact that parents are most likely to live with their eldest son even if he is not the eldest child constitute evidence in favor of social norms and traditions.     

Asset or burden? Impact of children on parents’ retirement

If parents receive financial support in retirement from their children, having more children with higher earning power may expedite their retirement. On the other hand, retirement may be delayed if parents are burdened with educational expenses for children. We empirically investigate how the quantity and the education of children influence their parents’ retirement decisions. Due to the endogeneity of childrearing in the retirement decision, we employ the instrumental variable method with twin births and child deaths as instruments. We find that parents retire earlier when they have more children and better educated children and they receive a significant amount of transfers from children.     

Who cares for children? A quantitative study of childcare in South Africa

In this study we investigate the gender division of labour in the physical and financial care of children in South Africa, in the context of large race differences in rates of union formation and parent–child co-residence. Using national micro-data, we show that across a variety of household forms, women are the primary caregivers of children even when they are not a child’s biological mother. Women are also more likely to provide physical care than men are to provide financial support for children’s schooling. However, this gender imbalance is far larger in the case of African children, the majority of whom do not live with their father. For most African children, both their physical and financial care is provided by women who are typically the child’s biological mother, but also the child’s grandmother or another female relative.     

Policy rate pass-through and the adjustment of retail interest rates: Empirical evidence from Malaysian financial institutions

The paper examines the interest rate pass-through from money market rates to various retail rates in Malaysia within the framework of an error-correction model. We estimate the short- and long-run interest rate pass-through and analyse the asymmetric behaviour of financial institutions under different monetary regimes. The results show that both deposit and lending rate pass-throughs are incomplete. However, pass-through and speed of adjustment vary across financial institutions and retail rates. This analysis also shows that interest rate adjustments are asymmetric, with more significant adjustments taking place under monetary easing than under monetary tightening. These results provide support for the existence of the interest rate channel of monetary policy in Malaysia. There is thus a need to conduct effective monetary operations to support efficient monetary transmission in Malaysia.     

中国空巢老人的生活质量研究——基于家庭养老视角

家庭结构小型化背景下,家庭养老逐渐弱化,由此对中国空巢老人生活质量的影响成为一个广受关注的问题,文章以多维贫困为例,试图从家庭养老的角度对中国空巢老人生活质量展开研究。首先从理论上探讨空巢老人获得家庭养老资源变化与生活质量之间的关系,然后从老年人的视角,利用2009年与2011年中国居民健康与营养调查（CHNS）追踪数据对此进行了实证检验。为克服内生性的影响,采用滞后因变量回归（LDV）考察基期的居住形式在下一期的影响,实证检验了是否空巢所获得家庭养老资源差异对其生活质量的影响。研究发现,空巢增加了生活满意度维度的贫困发生率,降低了收入和健康维度的贫困发生率,综合作用下空巢并没有显著增加老年人多维贫困发生率,且该影响存在显著的城乡、性别和年龄差异。对影响机制分析发现,空巢通过影响老人的经济和非经济支持获得作用于老人贫困：子女的经济支持和配偶的非经济支持保障了空巢老人免于陷入收入和健康维度贫困;子女的非经济支持则在一定程度上降低了老人生活满意度维度的贫困。这意味着在养老资源有限情况下需更多关注独居空巢老人,在鼓励子女关爱老人的同时,还可以鼓励老人通过社会参与弥补缺失的精神慰藉。文章为理解中国空巢老人生活质量提供了新的视角,也为制定政策提供参考。     

Inter-vivos Transfers and Exchange

Most parents divide their bequests equally among their children, whereas inter-vivos transfers are usually unequal. We propose that exchange is better for inducing inter-vivos transfers than bequests. Inter-vivos transfers can be adjusted quickly to the amount of care, are less costly than writing a will, and can be kept secret from other family members and the public. The results from national longitudinal data show that, as expected, if a parent gives any inter-vivos transfers, she is more likely to give to children who provide informal care. Informal care has no effect on the equality of intended bequests.     

Old‐Age Government Transfers and the Crowding Out of Private Gifts: The 70 and Above Program for the Rural Elderly in Mexico

We estimate the crowding out of private transfers caused by 70 y Más –a public assistance program for the rural elderly in Mexico for whom family support is an important source of income. Using data from the Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey and a triple difference approach, we find that the program crowds out private gifts by 37%, and it does so mostly by reducing the probability of receiving domestic remittances. As a result, the nonlabor income of beneficiaries increases by less than their government transfers. Thus, by reducing their private support to the elderly, domestic donors are dampening the effect of the program, although not completely neutralizing it.     

农村中年居民养老观念对养老方式影响因素研究

在我国老年人口抚养比增大、老年人口呈现高龄化和空巢化背景下,伴随着农村家庭结构核心化与传统的家庭养老功能的弱化,我国农村中年农民的养老观念已经发生了变化,并随之对养老方式产生影响。采用有序Logistic回归模型实证发现,在保留对子女的依赖性的同时,农村中年居民的养老独立意识显著增强并具有一定的社会参与和社会支持意识;持有不同养老观念的农村中年居民对其未来养老方式的选择意愿不同,农村居民的养老独立性越高、社会参与和社会支持的意识越强,对社会化养老的认同感越强。     

Do Parents Invest Less in Worse-Performing Children? Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis

This article uses data from Indonesia around the time of the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis to examine the role of parental preferences in human capital accumulation. Using a household fixed-effects estimation, I test whether parental education spending is affected by child mathematics test scores. I find that parents are more sensitive to the human capital of younger children, who are penalised for having lower skills than their older siblings. Differences in investment by child gender or birth order are evident in 2000 but not in 1997. This suggests that parents may have an efficiency investment strategy only when resource-constrained, and that education of younger children may be a luxury good.     

子女同住对养老第三支柱建设的影响研究——基于CFPS的经验证据

2021年11月出台的《中共中央、国务院关于加强新时代老龄工作的意见》在倡导“鼓励成年子女与老年父母就近居住或共同生活，履行赡养义务、承担照料责任”的同时，强调要“促进和规范发展第三支柱养老保险”。两者之间能否兼容促进很大程度上决定了中央积极应对老龄化战略能否切实贯彻到解决养老问题的实践之中，但现有文献对两者之间关系缺乏必要关注。文章利用2016年和2018年中国家庭追踪调查CFPS数据，从老年人金融参与的视角检验了子女同住对养老第三支柱建设的影响。研究发现，子女同住显著促进了养老第三支柱建设，提高了老年人金融参与积极性，尤其是对风险金融资产投入的促进更加显著。老年人为男性、居住东部地区、子女教育水平和个人收入高时这种促进效应更显著。机制研究发现，子女同住降低了老年人风险厌恶程度、增加了老年人知识认知和信息接触，从而增加老年人金融投资；同时发现老年人给予子女的劳动支持更能促进个人养老金参与，而子女对父母的照料未发现该促进效应，支持了子女同住的代际交换动机。结论表明，子女同住与养老第三支柱建设可有效互补。发展养老第三支柱不但能够满足老年人在子女赡养能力不足的情况下高质量的自我养老需求，更...     

Intergenerational Transfers and Asset Inequality in Japan: Empirical Evidence from New Survey Data

This paper quantitatively examines the impact of intergenerational transfers on asset inequality among Japanese households. We estimate an intergenerational asset transfer function with various control variables, using a unique micro dataset taken from a survey conducted by the Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office. Employing three different models, a Tobit model, an interval regression model and an ordered probit model, to ensure that our results are independent of the specific econometric approach used, we investigate whether asset transfers received are correlated with households’ financial strength. We find that higher income households are likely to receive larger asset transfers. However, the contribution of intergenerational transfers to asset inequality appears to be small.     

Motivation of Parent–Child Co‐residence Behavior: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

This paper examines the motivations of parent‐child co‐residence behavior in China using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We test three possible motives: social norms, self‐interest and altruism. We find that social norms play an important role in household co‐residence behavior, showing that the belief that “sons take care of parents” is strong, and children in different birth orders take different responsibilities. Taking the one‐child policy as a natural experiment, we compared co‐residence behavior between only‐child and multi‐child families. This allowed us to test whether children in multi‐child families with wealthier parents more often co‐reside in order to compete for a bequest. We find that parents' wealth is more appealing to children in multi‐child families. The results support the life cycle theory that co‐residence decisions are motivated by self‐interest. We also find some evidence of altruism when parents and children make co‐residence decisions. These findings provide some insights for designing future elder‐support policies in China.     

Does wealth matter? An assessment of China's rural-urban migration on the education of left-behind children

This paper decomposes the impact of parental migration on the education of children left behind. In particular, we examine whether children are enrolled in school on a timely basis according to their age when their parents are away. We found both theoretical and empirical evidence to support that parental migration generates a strong positive impact on timely enrollment if a child is from a less wealthy background. However, the effect decreases with family wealth, and reverses after reaching a threshold; we find this point using family house size as our proxy and the turning point occurs at a moderate size of approximately 148 square meters. In addition, we find a compensating effect that migrants tend to spend more on a child's education investment to offset for the loss of parental time care. Lastly, we found the overall impact of parental migration is negative on the timely enrollment of child. Thus, with the important heterogeneities attributed to wealth, our results suggest that the left behind children of more affluent parents may be pushed into worse human capital outcomes; given the rapid development of China, it may be the case that the current cohort of left behind children is less likely to be enrolled in school than earlier cohorts.     

Worthiness versus Self‐Interest in Charitable Giving: Evidence from a Low‐Income,Minority Neighborhood

We examine the impact of perceived worthiness and financial self‐interest on charitable giving. Both participants and recipients come from a low‐income, predominantly African‐American community in the United States. To examine this issue, we introduce a “Comparative Dictator Game,” where participants make dictator allocations for four possible recipients, each with different characteristics. We find higher charitable giving toward more “worthy” (i.e., disabled, females who are head of household, and individuals with more children) recipients when individuals donate money to different recipients. Additionally, subjects then select their preferred recipient/allocation. When only one recipient must be selected for a donation, individuals select recipients to whom they provided smaller donations and recipients with children. The results highlight the trade‐off between a desire to engage in philanthropy, supporting those who are deserving, and financial self‐interest.     

Money,Velocity, and the Stock Market

This paper provides a study of the relationship between money growth variability, velocity, and the stock market, using recent advances in financial econometrics. We estimate a trivariate VARMA, GARCH-in-Mean, BEKK model to quantify the effects of financial market and money supply instability. We investigate the robustness of the results to different definitions of money using monthly Divisia indices for the United States from the Center for Financial Stability (CFS). Empirical evidence supports significance of financial market and money supply volatility, and we conclude that Friedman’s money supply volatility hypothesis is alive and well.