Intergenerational Altruistic Links: A Model of Family Coresidence

Melanie A. Zilora, Carnegie Mellon University

This analysis uses linked mother-child data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and the 1979 Children/Young Adult Survey to investigate the presence of an intergenerational component to the launching process. We find that children who departed late or returned to the parental home are more likely to have coresident parents later in life, with this effect being most pronounced among upper and middle income youths, as well as youths from black or Hispanic families. We present both linear and non-parametric models of this effect, and contextualize it with a mixed motivation behavioral model of intra-family generosity which exhibits preferences consistent with these new facts.