The Connection Between Social Inequality And Intergenerational Transfers Between Three Generations In Europe

Family members support each other across the entire family cycle. Parents help their adult children with financial transfers and hands-on-support and childcare, while children in mid-life often support their older parents with help and care. However, there is profound social inequalities linked to intergenerational transfers. While there is some research on inequality for some types of intergenerational transfers and some transfer directions, there is still no conclusive study bringing together all different support types between multiple generations from different social backgrounds over time. In our view, taking a longitudinal multi-generational perspective is essential to capture dependencies and negotiations within families from different socio-economic backgrounds within different regional contexts. If middle-aged parents have to take care of their own older parents, they have fewer resources for their(grand-)children, who might then receive less attention and support from them. This may differ according to access to support from public or private institutions. Here, country and regional specifics have a huge impact on support patterns within the family, which can only be captured when looking into developments and change. Using six waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we look at intergenerational transfers between multiple generations over time across European regions, considering mid-aged Europeans in the “sandwich” position between older parents and children and include multiple transfer directions and types over time to assess the links between social inequality and intergenerational solidarity in Europe’s ageing societies. The impact of Covid 19 on this issue will also be considered.

THE IMPACT OF LIVING ARRANGEMENTS OF OLDER PEOPLE ON INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS FROM THEIR ADULT CHILDREN IN CHINA

Based on three waves of the nationally representative survey conducted in 2005, 2008-2009, and 2011-2012, this study investigates the effect of living arrangements on intergenerational transfers in China. Outcomes of interest include monetary transfers, contact, informal care, and emotional support that adult children provide to older parents. Both actual living arrangements and the discrepancy between actual and preferred living arrangements are considered. Endogeneity bias is accounted for through fixed-effects instrumental-variable regression modeling. It is found that co-residence serves as a substitute for monetary transfers and is positively associated with the probability that parents would receive contact, informal care and emotional support from adult children. Living alone with children in the same city is positively associated with the receipt of monetary transfers and contact by older parents but is not statistically related to the other two outcomes. There is an expressed desire for independent living among older people, which impacts transfer behaviors in a complex manner. This study provides a better understanding of the role of the family amidst ongoing social security reforms in China.

Gender Bias in Intergenerational Transfer Patterns: Focusing on a Patrilineal and a Matrilineal Ethnic Group in Indonesia

Gender was expected to strongly influence intergenerational transfers, especially in the country that has a multi-ethnic population. In this paper, we propose a new approach of intergenerational transfers pattern based on gender by using the raw data from Indonesia Family Life Surveys of 2014, with a total sample of 4179 households. Indonesia became an object of study because it has a multi-ethnic population and embraced the dual system, matrilineal and patrilineal kinship. This research aims to analyze the gender bias in the pattern of intergenerational transfers. The empirical model consists of four logistic regression equation, the dependent variable is the pattern of inter-generational transfers based on the direction and type of transfers. Our Econometric model estimation confirmed that the kinship system adopted by the family did not influence the decision to intergenerational transfers. Further results suggest that gender bias occurs only in the intergenerational transfers of money where daughters will receive more money than sons. These findings showed that women had a high financial dependency on their parents. The implication of it, improving the quality of women needs to be done to push them out of a liquidity constraint.

Impact of intergenerational transfers on fertility

On the theoretical basis of the "generational economy" the article describes the "model of overlapping generations" and "life cycle model" as the cause of the existence of intergenerational transfers. The classification of approaches to their study is carried out. Based on the exchange model (the concept of childbearing as a long-term investment in future transfers from adult children to elderly parents) and the theory of substitutions (crowding out private transfers by public social systems), the "elderly security hypothesis" is highlighted as a possible socio-economic reason for the demographic transition. Based on the works of A. Cigno, a theoretical review of this theory is made using the concepts of ^substitution effect» and «free rider effect». According to the works of R. Fenge and B. Scheubel, the "income effect" and "price effect" are defined as the key parameters for testing this hypothesis. An overview of the existing scientific and practical works on the topic of research is made, highlighting methods and results on the following examples: Italy after World War II, Germany at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Brazil in 1991-2000, Hungary in 19502006, 34 OECD countries in the 1990s and the consolidated data for 121 countries at present. The author has carried out his own empirical test of the «hypothesis of elderly security» in the countries of the world on the basis of UN and OECD statistics. Coverage, social security spending, replacement rate, mandatory premium rate, and an increased risk of poverty among older people support the safe aging theory of upward intergenerational transfers from children to parents. But the internal rate of return of pension systems and the average income of older people support the competing hypothesis of top-down intergenerational transfers from parent to child. It is concluded that, with a relatively low standard of living of population, intergenerational transfers go from children to parents, but when a certain level of national welfare is reached, the movement of transfers changes to the opposite direction.