Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20453 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1200
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The question that this paper addresses is whether or not parents are altruistic towards their children. A new approach will be introduced, where the life satisfaction data of parents will be regressed onto the living conditions of their children who now live independently. After controlling for unobserved household characteristics, no positive effect of children?s actual household income on parents? satisfaction can be found. However, children?s health and education have a positive impact on parental well-being. Both can be interpreted as an approximation of children?s lifetime incomes. We also regress parental life satisfaction on the predicted life satisfaction of their children. A significant positive effect can be found, which can be interpreted as weak evidence for parental altruism. The paper uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP).
Subjects: 
family
altruism
life satisfaction
health and random effects
JEL: 
D64
I31
D13
I19
C25
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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