Intergenerational transfers in France: stabilities and breaks in the distribution between age groups.

Summary The objective of this thesis is to verify whether the baby-boomers are at the origin of a break in intergenerational equity in France. It is based on an application of the National Transfer Accounts method, which provides an age-specific measure of consumption, individual resources, savings and public and private transfers between 1979 and 2011. Projections are also made to the year 2060 using the MELETE model for public transfers received and disposable income. The results, which are established with regard to the main criteria of intergenerational justice, do not show a clear and generalized break in intergenerational equity, even if French society is characterized by certain inequities concerning the distribution of income from assets and the distribution of retirement pensions between generations. Moreover, this thesis provides results that are useful for understanding family solidarity in France. Over the last thirty years, the increase in the economic weight of donations and inheritances has coincided with a decrease in the weight of aid within households and a stability in the weight of aid between households. The result is that private transfers between households are less and less adapted to the needs of the beneficiaries, which is corroborated by a micro-econometric panel analysis that shows that events experienced by donors can trigger the payment of donations, unlike aid between households, which depends exclusively on events experienced by the recipients.