Schenkungen und Erbschaften im Lebenslauf. Vergleichende Längsschnittanalysen zu intergenerationalen Transfers

Abstract

Gifts as intergenerational transfers inter vivos allow us to study the importance of life course events for the chances of receiving transfers. In Germany, gifts are highly private and leave more scope for decision-making than regulated bequests. Thus, gifts are better suited to test theories of family solidarity and transfer behavior. Our analysis focuses on larger transfers from parents and grandparents to their children and grandchildren. Bequests provide a comparative reference which highlights similarities and differences between transfers inter vivos and mortis causa. In our account, gift-giving is purposive action driven primarily by economic needs of the receivers, but also by immaterial aspects of family ties. We use event history models to study the effects of family events on the likelihood of initiating transfers. Chances of receiving large gifts increase in the first years after a marriage and also immediately after a divorce. These findings indicate, on the one hand, that transfers are triggered by economic need and thus support concepts of transfer behavior motivated by altruism or by norms of parental responsibility. On the other hand, these gifts express parental affection toward offspring families and the wish to strengthen kinship ties.