Although it has found wide use in analysis of Social Security and other policies, the life-cycle model of household behavior overlooks connections within family lines that may considerably affect the well-being of both young and old households. This proposal would use new data, from a Module to the HRS collected by the authors, to study middle-class intergenerational links, especially inter vivos transfers. Our goal is to improve understanding of the traditional life-cycle model, and its limitations, and to attempt to measure intergenerational family-line linkages that play a role in young households’ acquisition of human capital and older households’ security.
Intergenerational Transfers in the Health and Retirement Study Data
John Laitner, Amanda Sonnega,2010