Inter-Household private transfers and underlying motives : evidence for Bulgaria

• Autor(a) principal: Menezes, António Gomes de
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/1140
• topic: Altruism; Capital Market Imperfections; Exchange; Inter-Household Private Transfers

The effects of interactions between private transfer behavior and income redistribution policies depend on the motives underlying private income transfers. This paper tests for two different potential motives: pure altruism versus simple exchange, in the presence of capital market imperfections. Using household survey data for Bulgaria, microeconometric evidence is found that both motives are in effect. We also find evidence that capital market imperfections are likely to be binding for consumption smoothing, and hence are an important cause of private transfers. The results indicate that social security benefits “crowd in” the incidence of private transfers, but not the amounts transferred.