TY  - JOUR
AU  - Abel,Andrew B.
TI  - Operative Gift and Bequest Motives
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 2331
PY  - 1988
Y2  - March 1988
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2331
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w2331.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Andrew B. Abel
Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
2315 Steinberg Hall - Dietrich Hall
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6367
Tel: 215/898-4801
Fax: 215/573-7244
E-Mail: abel@wharton.upenn.edu
AB  - The Ricardian Equivalence Theorem, which is the proposition that changes in the timing of lump-sum taxes have no effect on assumption or capital accumulation, depends on the exist- of operative altruistic motives for intergenerational transfers. These transfers can be bequests from parents to children or gifts from children to parents. In order for the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem to hold, one of these transfer motives must be operative in the sense that the level of the transfer is not determined by a corner solution resulting from a binding non-negativity constraint This paper derives conditions that determine whether the bequest motive will be operative, the gift motive will be operative, or neither motive will be operative in a model in which consumers are altruistic toward their parents and their children.
ER  -