Family Transfers Involving Three Generations.

Most models of family intergenerational transfers consider only two generations (parents and children) and focus on two motives for parental transfers: altruism and exchange, while assuming almost perfect substitution between inter vivos transfers and bequests. Based upon French evidence, this paper shows, on the contrary, that inter vivos downward transfers, made at quite distant dates over the life cycle, belong to three distinct categories, according to the main objective pursued by parents: investment in child's education; financial assistance; wealth transmission (being substitutes for bequests only in the third case).