Resource Compensation from the Extended Family: Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles in Finland and the United States

Erola, Jani; Kilpi-Jakonen, Elina; Prix, Irene; Lehti, Hannu

doi:10.1093/esr/jcy021

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Previous studies suggest that socioeconomic differences in mortality in Finland are still rather large (Mackenbach et al 2017). On the other hand, other studies show that Finland is a strongly egalitarian welfare state, providing income transfers for those at need; in addition, free of charge education has been particularly effective in reducing intergenerational social disparities in educational and socioeconomic attainment (Erola et al 2018;Jäntti et al 2006;Pfeffer 2008). Thus, due to the national context, we expect that experiencing parental death in the first place should be strongly dependent on the family background, but the impact of experiencing parental death itself should not great due to the institutional compensation by the extensive welfare state.…”

Section: The Influence Of Parental Death By Family Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child’s age at parental death and university education

Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist

Erola

2020

European Societies

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Losing a parent due to premature death is generally associated with negative child outcomes. However, the study of possible (modifying) effects of the child's age and family background has been neglected in previous research. In this paper, we analyse the relationship between the child's age at parental death and the child's university education, and we study whether the possible association is modified by the child's family background. We apply ordinary least square regression and linear sibling fixed effect models to high-quality Finnish Census Panel data, consisting of 88,727 children born between 1982 and 1990. According to our results, the negative influence of parental death varies by the child's age; the consequences of parental death for young children were the most adverse. Interestingly, the influence of parental death seemed not to vary by family background.

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Section: The Influence Of Parental Death By Family Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child’s age at parental death and university education

Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist

Erola

2020

European Societies

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“…Prior research has documented substantial multigenerational associations in education (Zeng and Xie, 2014;Sheppard and Monden, 2018), occupation (Chan and Boliver, 2013), and wealth (Pfeffer and Killewald, 2017;Adermon et al, 2018). Extended kin may compensate for the shortcomings of parents, providing resources that parents cannot (Prix and Pfeffer, 2017;Erola et al, 2018), or may serve as a cultural reference point that propels offspring toward academic achievement and attainment (Hertel and Groh-Samberg, 2014;Hällsten and Pfeffer, 2017).…”

Section: Interpretation 3: From a First-order To A Second-order Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Opportunity Skip Generations? Reassessing Evidence From Sibling and Cousin Correlations

Lundberg

2020

Demography

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Sibling (cousin) correlations are empirically straightforward: they capture the degree to which siblings' (cousins') socioeconomic outcomes are similar. At face value, these quantities seem to summarize something about how families constrain opportunity. Their meaning, however, is complicated. One empirical set of sibling and cousin correlations can be generated from a multitude of distinct theoretical processes. I illustrate this problem in the context of multigenerational mobility: the relationship between the incomes of an ancestor and a descendant separated by several generations in a family. When cousins' outcomes are similar (an empirical fact), prior authors have favored a particular theoretical interpretation: that extended kin affect life chances through pathways not involving the parents of the focal individual. I show that this evidence is consistent with alternative theories of latent transmission (measurement error) or dynamic transmission (a parent-to-child transmission process that changes over generations). Theoretical assumptions are required to lend meaning to a point estimate. Further, I show that point estimates alone may be misleading because they can be highly uncertain. To facilitate uncertainty estimation for the key test statistic, I develop a Bayesian procedure to estimate sibling and cousin correlations. I conclude by outlining how future research might use sibling and cousin correlations as effective descriptive quantities while remaining cognizant that these quantities could arise from a variety of distinct theoretical processes.

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“…A recent systematic review on grandparent effects on educational outcomes included 69 analyses from 40 publications (Anderson, Sheppard, & Monden, 2018). Although the literature has steadily expanded over the last decade (e.g., Engzell, Mood, & Jonsson, 2020;Erola, Kilpi-Jakonen, Prix, & Lehti, 2018;Fiel, 2019;Lehti et al, 2018;Liu, 2018;Zhang & Li, 2018), findings are inconclusive whether there is a direct effect of grandparent socioeconomic characteristics on grandchildren's educational outcomes. In their review, Anderson et al (2018) concluded that 58 percent of studies found a statistically significant association between G1 socioeconomic characteristics and G3 educational outcomes net of G2 characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%