Measuring Voluntary Inter-household Transfers in Canada

Households provide money, goods and services directly to help other households: these inter-household transfers add up to a sizable flow of economic resources between households. While measured by Statistics Canada surveys, inter-household transfers are not included in the recipient household's total income-except court-ordered alimony and child support payments. Because inter-household transfers affect a household's ability to consume goods (Smeeding and Weinburg, 2001), they are important in measuring a household's economic well-being. This paper examines the conceptual and measurement issues related to voluntary inter-household transfers, and provides a portrait of voluntary inter-household transfer in Canada. This paper uses the recent data on inter-household transfers from Statistics Canada's income, expenditure, and wealth surveys.