How Public Policies Affect Intergenerational Family Giving in Europe

Stipica Mudrazija, University of Texas at Austin

Policymakers are increasingly interested in understanding the exchange of support between family generations and the effects of public policies on family-transfer behavior. This study uses data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe to estimate the likelihood and the balance of financial and monetized nonfinancial transfers between parents and grown children as well as to determine the relationship of the likelihood and net value of parent-child transfers with the constituent elements of public intergenerational redistribution of resources including social spending, taxation, and legal framework. The sample includes 36,095 parent-child dyads from eleven European countries. The findings suggest that public intergenerational redistribution of resources is negatively associated with the absolute value of net parent-child transfers. Furthermore, the parent-child redistribution of resources due to public spending and taxation is associated with a secondary redistribution from the public policy beneficiary to the other person.