Cultural Evolutionary Altruism: Theory and Evidence

In: European journal of political economy, Band 18, Heft 2, S. 241-262

Abstract

This paper examines the motives underlying inter vivos transfers within the family. Moving away from the altruism & exchange hypotheses, we study the endogenous altruism approach in which private transfers are rooted in a purposeful shaping of preferences within the family. Rather than relying on the demonstration effect theory where parents take care of their elders in order to elicit a similar behavior from their children, we present a model of cultural transmission of altruistic values between generations in which individuals can be either altruistic or nonaltruistic with respect to their parents. The predictions of the model are empirically tested using French data that allow us to investigate time-related transfers & attention from middle-aged respondents to their elders. The empirical results are in favor of the cultural transmission of altruism, in that people who support their parents are more likely to be supported by their children. 4 Tables, 63 References. Adapted from the source document.