An Experimental Study of Intergenerational Altruism with Parent-Child Pairs

Hideo Akabayashi, Akiko Kamesaka, Ryosuke Nakamura, Masao Ogaki and Teruyuki Tamura
Additional contact information
Akiko Kamesaka: School of Business Administration, Aoyama Gakuin University
Ryosuke Nakamura: Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University
Teruyuki Tamura: Graduate School of Economics, Sophia University

No 2014-005, Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series from Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University

Abstract: In the standard intergenerational altruism model in which the child's utility level is an argument in the parent's utility function, there are no conflicts of interests between the parent and the child if they need to reach an agreement about the amount and the timing of a present that child receives from a third party. On the other hand, in the intergenerational altruism models of cultural transmission of preferences, this may not be true. This difference in two classes of the models can be used to distinguish between them in experiments. We conducted a time preference experiment to compare individual and joint decision makings with parent-child pairs in which (1)the child alone, (2) the parent alone, and (3) the parent-child pair as a group make decisions about the amount and the timing of the payment to the child. The experimental results are not consistent with the standard intergenerational altruism model but consistent with models of cultural transmission of preferences.

Keywords: intergenerational altruism; model of cultural transmission of preferences; time preference experiment; individual and joint decisions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D14 E2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-mac and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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