Understanding whether the elderly are saving adequately is fundamental in understanding their living standards. One factor that affects wealth accumulation is the extent to which parents need to support children and the extent to which children support parents. Social Security has long been known to affect intergenerational transfers, but the extent to which it ‘crowds out’ transfers from parents to children is controversial. The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) has detailed information on 2-3 generations of parents and children. Using WLS, we will analyze the impact of transfer patterns on wealth accumulation, evaluate theories of transfer behavior, and investigate how cognitive skills and other attributes influence transfer and saving behavior.
Long-Run Determinants of Intergenerational Transfers
John Karl Scholz, Ananth Seshadri, Kamil Sicinski,2014