Intergenerational Transfers in a General Equilibrium Setting

Abstract

The following chapter aims at answering three central questions. First, how do private intergenerational transfers affect generations’ welfare during a demo­graphic transition? While the joint welfare effect of public intergenerational transfers and population aging has extensively been investigated (e.g. [103], [149]), so far relatively little has been said on the welfare implications of private intergenerational transfers. Where private transfers have been taken into account, the authors usually confine their analysis to a single transfer motive (cf. [13], [14], [109]). Lacking empirical evidence in favor of a pre­dominant transfer motive, this approach seems little satisfactory. Section 5.2 therefore investigates the welfare implications of private transfers during a demographic transition by making allowances for different bequest motives.