# CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, TRANSFERS, AND THE EXTENDED FAMILY

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS · 1989 · $85,066

## Abstract

The specific aims of this proposal are 1) to improve understanding of
household consumption choice and labor supply decisions and the role of
the extended family in thee decisions, 2) to understand the economic
motivation underlying family exchange, 3) to understand whether the
individual, the household, or the extended family constitutes the basic
economic decision-making unit, 4) to study the timing, magnitude, and
cause of intra- and intergenerational transfers, and 5) to study
heterogeneity in the transfer behavior of extended families and in their
influence on consumption choice and labor supply.

The proposed study will be based on three data sets that have received
little or no attention to date.  The first is the respondent=-child
spinoff linked PSID (RC-PSID).  This data set refers to the combination
of data on the original PSID adult respondents with information
subsequently collected on their adult children who are referred to as
PSID spinoffs.  These parent-child linked PSID data represent a
remarkable data base covering an important component of the extended
family - namely parents and their adult children.  The second data
source is the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), that has been ongoing
since 1980.  In addition to providing excellent data on consumption, the
CES includes data on labor supply and assets. These data are extremely
well suited to test several alternative models of consumption choice and
to examine the role of liquidity constraints in consumption decisions.
The third data set is 1988 PSID Kinship Supplement (KS-PSID) which will
be released at the beginning of the second year of the proposed project.
This data, which was collected as part of the 1988 wave of the PSID,
contains extensive questions concerning financial transfers and
transfers in the form of time made and received during 1987.

The project will 1) use the RC-PSID to conduct new direct tests of
altruistic linkages within the extended family, 2) use the CES data to
conduct basic tests of intertemporal optimal consumption and labor
supply choice and liquidity constraints, 3) use the KS=PSID, the
RC=PSID, and PSID to produce detailed cross section and time series
descriptions of transfers within the extended family.  Each of these
three tasks will compliment the others.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3120384
- **Project number:** 1R01AG008655-01
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CAMPUS
- **SAM.gov UEI:** FBYMGMHW4X95
- **Principal Investigator:** LAURENCE JACOB KOTLIKOFF
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $85,066
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1989-09-01 → 1991-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3120384

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3120384, CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, TRANSFERS, AND THE EXTENDED FAMILY (1R01AG008655-01). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3120384. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*