Transfers and familial collective redistribution

The debate on the financing of pensions largely neglects the redistributive action of the family. Older generations make financial transfers both to their children and grandchildren in return for the pensions they receive. We suggest a collective model of private transfers which takes into account provisions to a family public good and where grandparents and parents give money to young adult households. We successively examine the possibility of a consensus between the donors, noncooperative and Pareto efficient contributions to the children. The econometric results based on a French survey on solidarities within trigenerational families reject both the income pooling and the noncooperative cases, but not the efficiency hypothesis, revealing that retired grandparents play a significant role in the familial transfer system. Classification JEL : D64, H41, J14.