Motives for Intergenerational Transfers: New Test for Exchange

The question of motives for private transfers is one with important policy implications. The evidence from empirical literature has been mixed. This study proposes new tests and evidence of the “exchange motive.” It examines the key assumption on which the exchange motive model is built: that a donor's behavior is determined by his/her own expectation of receiving inter‐vivos transfers or bequests in return. Results from national data show that adult children's time transfers to their aging parents were positively associated with their expectation of inter‐vivos financial transfers, but not with their expectation of receiving bequests.