Altruistically motivated transfers under uncertainty

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barczyk, Daniel; Kredler, Matthias
• 署名单位: McGill University; Universite de Montreal
• 刊物名称: QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1759-7323
• DOI: 10.3982/QE353
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 705-749
• 关键词: Altruism; inter vivos transfers; consumption-savings decision; differential games

摘要

How do families behave dynamically? We provide a framework for studying economic problems in which family behavior is essential. Our key innovation is the inclusion of imperfectly altruistic agents in an otherwise standard consumption-savings problem with exogenous income risk. This gives rise to altruistic transfers and strategic behavior in the consumption-savings decision. We study the Markov-perfect equilibrium that arises from the limit of equilibria in a sequence of finite games. The equilibrium's transfer patterns are empirically plausible. Furthermore, agents overconsume relative to the social optimum. In contrast to two-period models, both the richer and the poorer players overconsume long before transfers actually occur. The poorer agent also faces incentives to engage in excessive risk-taking because losses from a gamble are absorbed by both while gains are enjoyed alone.