This paper studies the effects of differences in worldviews on parents? attitudes towards their children. We use unique German survey data containing questions on worldviews, religion, parental behavior, and socioeconomic variables. Our empirical evidence suggests that people with stronger...

This paper uses SOEP data to study the distributional effect of intergenerational transfers on the wealth distribution of German households. Similar to most other central European countries, Germany is likely to face a period of increasing aggregate bequest flows. At the same time, there is an...

In the forthcoming decades the industrialized countries will experience a demographic transition that is unprecedented in history. While the transition's impact on public pension schemes has extensively been examined, its implication for private intergenerational transfers has gone almost...

The research on private financial transfers between generations lacks a longitudinal perspective. 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...

This paper provides the first empirical analysis on whether and how intergenerational transmission affects children's risk preferences by exploiting exogenous variation in parents' risk preferences. We utilize parents' experiences to earthquakes---one of the most unpredictable natural...

We study empirically whether there is scope for parents to shape the economic preferences and attitudes of their children through purposeful investments. We exploit information on the risk and trust attitudes of parents and their children, as well as rich information about parental efforts in...