THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN INTRA-FAMILY INCOME TRANSFERS

Abstract

The study conducted an exploration of old-age people specifically parents in families and the effect of their presence on intra-family transfers (transfer among siblings). As market has the inherent potential in excluding the inefficient ones, family lays the foundation for these people. This feature of family plays the vital role in having better income distribution in society and within a household. The present study focused on highlighting this aspect of a family where it plays the role of an economic institution in the absence of well-developed credit markets as in case of Pakistan. Also, the conventional economics do not see family from this perspective where it provides social insurance and financial inclusion for its members in the uncertain times of life. Different empirical tests have been performed to compute the descriptive statistics and for the regression purpose, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation technique is used. The study intends to find all possible determinants of intra-family income transfers. The independent variables in the empirical model are parent’s life status, respondent’s income, total per capita mutual calls, total per capita visits, spouse status and the dependent variable is total intra-family transfers. The computed results suggested that respondents make and receive intra-family income transfers on occasional basis. This result highlights that family plays the role of social insurance, economic institution and financial support/inclusion in the crucial time of one’s life and in this process the role of parents is highly significant.