Inter Vivos Gifts: Compensatory or Equal Sharing?

Stefan Hochguertal and Henry Ohlsson
Additional contact information
Stefan Hochguertal: EUI

No 699, Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers from Econometric Society

Abstract: Empirical studies of intergenerational transfers usually find that bequests are equally divided among heirs while inter vivos gifts tend to be compensatory. Using the HRS data set from the U.S. we find that only 5 % of parents who give, divide their gifts equally among their children. Estimating probit models, using family panels, we find that gifts are compensatory in the sense that a child is more likely to receive a gift if she works fewer hours and has lower earnings than than her brothers and sisters. These results carry over to the amounts given. Fixed effects Tobit estimations show that the fewer hours a child works and the lower her income is, the more the parents give. Gifts are compensatory. The empirical results are, therefore, consistent with the predictions of the altruistic model of intergenerational transfers.

Date: 2000-08-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://fmwww.bc.edu/RePEc/es2000/0699.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Compensatory inter vivos gifts (2009)
Working Paper: Compensatory Inter Vivos Gifts (2001)
Working Paper: Compensatory inter vivos gifts (2000)
Working Paper: Compensatory inter vivos gifts (2000)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecm:wc2000:0699

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers from Econometric Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().