The Initiation of Intergenerational Financial Transfers from Parents to Their Adult Children

Leah K. VanWey, Indiana University
Shelley Nelson, Indiana University

Intergenerational transfers, including both inter vivos transfers and bequests, account for a large portion of the intergenerational transfer of social and economic status. In related work, the authors of this paper are pursuing an analysis of how transfer behavior changes as a result of changes in the marital status of older men and women. One of the surprising findings of that work is the strong persistence of transfers over time. The current study will examine the timing of the initiation of transfers between parents and adult children and the effects of respondent and child characteristics on this timing. Using data from respondents ages 51-60 in the initial wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we will follow these respondents through subsequent waves (1992–2004), using discrete time event history analysis to examine the effects of age, marital status, health status, wealth, income, etc. on the hazard of transferring.