scholarly journals The crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on household consumption from the perspective of population aging: evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Congjia Huo ◽  
Guoan Xiao ◽  
Lingming Chen

AbstractThe pace of aging in China is accelerating, from the introduction of family planning to the liberalization of the two-child policy, with a growing proportion of families in the 4–2-1 structure. With filial piety in mind, most adult children will live with their elderly parents and share income and expenditure. Concurrently, due to the inadequacy of the social security system, a heavy supplementary burden of supporting the elderly has been placed on adult children. Based on data from the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), this study analyzes the objective factors affecting household elderly support expenditure using the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation method. It also examines the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on the consumption of different types of households through a panel generalized method of moments (GMM) approach. Finally, the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure is discussed in a sub-sample according to the number of households needing to support the elderly aged 60 and above. The empirical results illustrate that there is a crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on household consumption, and the magnitude of the crowding-out effect varies for diverse consumption. Our study reveals that the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on core consumption is the largest in a sample with different numbers of elderly persons in families. The empirical results for the sub-sample show that the larger the elderly population, the stronger the crowding-out effect of elderly support expenditure on core consumption and the less pronounced the effect on marginal consumption.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Jia Miao ◽  
Xiaogang Wu

AbstractThis study investigates the relative importance of living with adult children and social participation for the elderly's subjective wellbeing (happiness) in three Chinese societies (Hong Kong, urban China and Taiwan). We use data from the 2011 wave of the Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (N = 1,658), the 2010 China Family Panel Studies in mainland China (N = 3,198) and the 2010 wave of the Taiwan Social Change Survey (N = 790). The ordinary least squares regression shows that, as the family value of society moves forward on a traditional–modern continuum, the elderly benefit more psychologically from social participation and less from living with children. The older people in Hong Kong who live independently with a spouse are in a significantly better emotional state than those living with adult children. Social participation is positively associated with subjective wellbeing among the aged in Hong Kong but not among those in urban China and Taiwan. The findings suggest that encouraging social involvement is important for effective public policy to tackle rapid population ageing in Chinese societies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 348-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihong Shi

AbstractThis article explores the transformation of the gendered practice of filial piety in China, which traditionally places sons at the centre and relegates daughters to a peripheral role within their natal families. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork in a rural community in north-eastern China, this article suggests a transformed opinion on filial piety, considering daughters as more filial, as is vividly expressed by the Chinese saying “A daughter is like a little quilted vest to warm her parents' hearts.” Meanwhile, elderly parents have modified traditional standards of filial practice to encompass a desire for an expression of intimate care, respect and practical support from adult children. Further examination suggests three major factors contributing to the transformation of the gendered practice of filial piety: reinterpreted intergenerational relations, women's increased filial practice to their natal parents, and an increased desire of the elderly for an emotional bond with their children.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (14) ◽  
pp. 1912-1936
Author(s):  
Ju-Ping Lin ◽  
Chin-Chun Yi

In an aging society with a declining birthrate, there are more and more elderly to care for and fewer adult children to provide them care; these adult children, and the state, are forced to weigh the costs of eldercare against the cost of child care. In Taiwan, these dilemmas may be particularly acute, given the persistence of Confucian norms of filial piety and the extended family structures. In this study, we examine the attitudes of Taiwanese people toward the relative responsibilities of both adult children and the welfare state for eldercare and child care. Data were taken from the Taiwan Social Change Survey in 2011. Using latent class analysis to develop a typology of attitudes toward intergenerational care responsibilities, we found four types: (a) Family cares for elders and children, (b) family cares mainly for children, (c) cooperation between family and government, (d) government cares for the elderly. Findings show that an individual’s attitudes toward welfare state policies are significantly related to both self-interest and sociocultural norms as well as intergenerational family interactions. In Taiwan, filial norms and the quality of family interaction significantly influence attitudes toward the division of intergenerational care responsibilities.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-289
Author(s):  
Harald Künemund ◽  
Claudia Vogel

In this article we discuss the plausibility ofthe “crowding out“ hypothesis that predicts adisplacement of family support in responseto the expansion of the welfare state. A theoreticaldiscussion of motives for privateintergenerational transfers suggests a limitedpotential of crowding out. However, in sumcrowding out is unlikely to occur becausecontradictory effects of crowding in are alsoprobable. Using a comparative approach, wetest whether the support that the elderly receivefrom their adult children varies systematicallywith the generosity in public expenditure,which is what we would expectaccording to the crowding-out assumption.The empirical findings contradict this hypothesis. Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag diskutiert die Plausibilität der These des „crowding out“, nach der der Ausbau sozialstaatlicher Leistungen familiale Unterstützungsleistungen und familiale Solidarität verdrängen würde. In einer theoretischen Erörterung der Motive für private intergenerationelle Unterstützungsleistungen wird herausgearbeitet, dass ein crowding out theoretisch zwar möglich, insgesamt betrachtet aber empirisch unwahrscheinlich ist, da gegenläufige Effekte des crowding in eine höhere Plausibilität haben. Mit Hilfe eines Ländervergleichs wird anschließend untersucht, ob sich die Anteile der Hilfen, die die Älteren von ihren Kindern erhalten, systematisch mit Blick auf das Niveau der wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Versorgung unterscheiden, wie es der These des crowding out entsprechen würde. Die deskriptiven empirischen Befunde sprechen jedoch ebenfalls gegen diese These.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Hu ◽  
Yuanyang Wu ◽  
Hualei Yang ◽  
Lin Xie ◽  
Anqi Zhang ◽  
...  

Background: Increased population aging is associated with increased incidence of depression among the elderly. Existing studies have shown that ill-advised fertility behaviors during their youth also affect the health of the elderly. However, insufficient attention has been paid to depression among elderly in China. This paper focuses on how fertility behaviors affect senile depression among parents by examining the heterogeneity of such effects and tests the applicability of existing theoretical findings in a Chinese sample.Methods: The effects of fertility behaviors on depression among the elderly were investigated using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), a nationally representative dataset. The effects of early-age fertility behaviors on the degree of depression among the elderly were investigated using ordinary least squares and ordered probit models that adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic factors.Results: (1) The age of first childbirth, childbearing period, and number of births were significantly and positively correlated with the degree of depression among the elderly (particularly rural persons aged 50–70 and older womens). (2) Elderly persons with sons had no better mental health status than those without sons, thus indicating the inapplicability of the traditional concept of “more sons are equal to more happiness” to the actual mental health situation of the elderly in China today.Conclusion: Overall, multiple, late, and boy-oriented childbearing and overly long childbearing periods had negative effects on mental health among Chinese elderly persons. This study tested the applicability of existing theoretical inferences and empirical conclusions in China, thereby further expanding the current literature regarding the effects of fertility behaviors on depression among the elderly.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Pezzuti ◽  
Caterina Laicardi ◽  
Marco Lauriola

Summary: An Elderly Behavior Assessment for Relatives (EBAR), updating the GERRI ( Schwartz, 1983 ), was administered to relatives (or significant others) of 349 elderly persons, from 60 to over 80 years of age, living at home, in good health and without cognitive impairment. A trained psychologist administered subjects the Life Satisfaction for Elderly Scale (LSES), the Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and personally answered to an overall elderly behavior rating scale (RA). EBAR items were first examined. The more attractive and less discriminative statements were excluded. A principal components analysis was carried out on the remaining EBAR items. Three factors were extracted. After varimax rotation they were tentatively labeled: Everyday Cognitive Functioning, Depression, and Hostility. Factor-driven EBAR subscales were designed, taking into account simpler items in the factor matrix. Results provide evidence for EBAR construct validity. Everyday Cognitive Functioning is connected to the IADL and the RA scores; Depression is very highly related to the LSES; Hostility is weakly related to RA, IADL, and MMSE, indicating that the scale needs further investigation.


2019 ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Tadej Glažar ◽  
Marjeta Zupancic ◽  
Samo Kralj ◽  
Robert Peternelj

The Real Estate Fund of Pension and Disability Insurance (Nepremicninski Sklad) in Slovenia, founded in1997 is the owner of 3255 properties in 116 locations throughout the country and is intended for solving housing issues of pensioners of 65 years or older and other elderly persons who are allowed independently to live. The lease contracts are concluded for an indefinite period of time. The aim and vision of the Fund is to improve the quality of life for the elderly tenants by adapting the living environment, the flats and surroundings according to the physical needs of aging tenants. Homes for seniors often have low light levels and poor light spectrum caused by fluorescent or incandescent lighting. Demographic changes in most European countries show rising average life expectancy which means that the number of people with weak visual capacity or visual impairment is increasing. Equally the risks of injuries due to poor lighting conditions are increasing, e.g. missing a step resulting in a hip joint fracture. Better lighting conditions are of critical importance for aging population, as stated also in the recently published CIE227:2017. To facilitate safe environment for the elderly, the Fund in 2013 initiated a lighting research study that should provide facts and evidence for a lighting standard for their own premises.


Author(s):  
Robert B. Talisse

Democracy is an extremely important social political good. Nonetheless, there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. When we overdo democracy, we allow the categories, allegiances, and struggles of politics to overwhelm our social lives. This has the effect of undermining and crowding out many of the most important correlated social goods that democracy is meant to deliver. What’s more, in overdoing democracy, we spoil certain social goods that democracy needs in order to flourish. Thus overdoing democracy is democracy’s undoing. A thriving democracy needs citizens to reserve space in their shared social lives for collective activities and cooperative projects that are not structured by political allegiances; they must work together in social contexts where political affiliations and party loyalties are not merely suppressed, but utterly beside the point. Combining conceptual analyses of democratic legitimacy and responsible citizenship with empirical results regarding the political infiltration of social spaces and citizens’ vulnerabilities to polarization, this book provides a diagnosis of current democratic ills and a novel prescription for addressing them. Arguing that overdoing democracy is the result of certain tendencies internal to the democratic ideal itself, the book demonstrates that even in a democracy, politics must be put in its place.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 345-346
Author(s):  
Jeung Hyun Kim

Abstract The current study explores the association between grandparent caregiving by Chinese American elders and their perceived receipt of filial support from their adult children, called filial piety (xiao). Many studies find a correlation between grandparent caregiving and filial behaviors from their adult children, which is notably higher among minority families, especially among Asians than among white families, stimulated by the norm of reciprocity, familism, and extended kinship. Drawing from the theory of intergenerational relationships, social exchange theory, and the role theory, this study questions whether a more active engagement in grandparenting renders higher levels of filial piety returns from adult children. It uses the PINE data, a survey on the wellbeing of Chinese American elders in Chicago. The results show that more hours of grandparent caregiving relate to higher returns of filial piety perceived by older parents. Correspondingly, though with a marginal significance, more pressures to take care of a grandchild from adult children reduce the elders’ perception of filial piety receipt. No interaction effect is found between the grandparenting hours and the pressure from adult children. Additionally, Chinese American elders possessing higher levels of education, mastery, and longer stays in the US perceive lower levels of filial piety receipt from adult children. Discussion will focus on how grandparent caregiving can be mutually beneficial and strengthen intergenerational relationships among Chinese American families.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document