Intervivos Giving Over the Lifecycle

Michael D. Hurd, James P. Smith, Julie Zissimopoulos

Published Oct 11, 2011

The authors use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study on money parent give to adult children over sixteen years. They study the scale of giving, regularity over time, and factors shaping it. Parents give $5,000 to children with the one-third of parents who give, averaging $14,000 over two years. There is persistence in giving declining with age and resulting in total gifts of $50,000 from age 53 to death excluding bequests. Single parents who expect a long life span and are risk averse give less money to children; consistent with a lifecycle model of consumption including transfers.

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Hurd, Michael D., James P. Smith, and Julie Zissimopoulos, Intervivos Giving Over the Lifecycle. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2011. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR524-1.html.
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This publication supersedes a previous version published in 2007 (WR-524).