Altruism And Beyond: An Economic Analysis Of Transfers And Exchanges Within Families And Groups (oscar Morgenstern Memorial Lectures)

How do altruistic links affect allocative behavior and wellbeing? Can the processes of transmission and probable acquisition of parental traits result in a stable equilibrium where all agents are altruists? Why do children furnish their parents with attention and care? Does the timing of the intergenerational transfer of the family's productive asset affect the recipient's incentive to acquire human capital? Why do migrants remit? Altruism and Beyond provides answers to these and related questions. In addition, it traces some of the market repercussions of the intrafamilial, intergenerational, and intragroup transfers and exchanges that it models. This book employs economic methodology to study the motives for and the repercussions of transfers and exchanges within families, between generations, and within groups. The book shows how the allocative behavior and wellbeing of one family member depend on his altruistic link with another family member, how the timing of the intergenerational transfer of the family productive asset affects the recipient's incentive to engage in human capital formation, and how transfers from an adult to his parents impinge on future transfers to him from his own children. In addition, the book shows that under asymmetric information high-skill migrant workers make transfers to low-skill would-be migrants in order to lure them to stay put, and that under incomplete information a group-specific informational edge - lower recognition costs - results in a superior exchange outcome Finally, altruism, which in the beginning of the book is assumed, is explained: the transmission to or probable acquisition by children of parental traits and the exchange between siblings are shown to result in a stable equilibrium wherein no agent behaves nonaltruistically. The book studies both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives for transfer behavior. In addition, it traces some of the market repercussions of intrafamilial, intergenerational, and intragroup transfers and exchanges Now revised, updated and in paperback this book studies both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives for transfer behavior. It also traces some of the market repercussions of intrafamilial, intergenerational, and intragroup transfers and exchanges In all economies, but particularly in less developed countries, a considerable proportion of resource transfers takes place outside the realm of the marketplace: inside families, within households, and among members of kin group or caste. Oded Stark. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.