The balance of intergenerational family transfers: a life-cycle perspective

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the likelihood and net amount of parent-child transfers over the adult life cycle across European welfare regimes. The study introduces an economic life-cycle model of family transfers to describe the evolution of family exchanges across generations over time, which reveals a nonlinear relationship of age and net family transfers. Furthermore, it refines the method of estimating parent-child net transfers. Data come from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and include 36,095 parent-child dyads from 11 European countries representing social democratic, conservative, and traditional welfare-state regimes. The findings reveal net value of family intergenerational support follows a nonlinear pattern across the adult life cycle, with positive transfers from parents to adult children decreasing modestly until advanced old age when the decrease intensifies. Net family support benefits individuals and generations with larger relative need. The transition in the net family support pattern starts later and is less pronounced across social democratic welfare-regime countries while the opposite is true in traditional welfare-regime countries. These findings might be interpreted as being linked to differences in the public policies guaranteeing different levels of provision for dependent populations across different welfare regimes. They are consistent with a comparatively smaller role of family support in the intergenerational redistribution of resources in societies with larger public intergenerational support to dependent populations.

Age Relations and Family Ties Over the Life Course: Spanning the Macro–Micro Divide

“…Inside families, the interests of younger generations are regularly championed by older ones. Research consistently shows an impressive flow of resources from older parents to their adult children until very old age (Mudrazija, 2013), leading some to refer to the safety nets and scaffolding provided by parents to their adult progeny (Swartz, Kim, Uno, Mortimer, & O'Brien, 2011; see also Connidis, 2010). Middle-age and older parents often help with housing.…”

Childlessness and upward intergenerational support: cross-national evidence from 11 European countries

“…Scholars have devoted considerable attention to comparative studies on the exchange of financial transfers, help and care, as well as emotional closeness and proximity between adult family generations across European countries ( e.g. Attias-Donfut, Ogg and Wolff 2005; Deindl and Brandt 2011; Hank 2007; Igel and Szydlik 2011; Mudrazija 2014). These studies document that most help within the family – in kind or emotionally – is transferred between parents and their children, to the extent that what Bengtson (2001) labels as the ‘decline of the family’ still seems to be a myth.…”

Characteristics and Determinants of Intergenerational Financial Transfers Within Families Using Mixed Care for Elderly People

“…They also found that financial transfers from the old to the young are more common in those living as a couple, those with higher socio-economic status and education and those with good health. Mudrazija (2014) also showed that net transfers of money from parents to children only modestly decrease with age. Additionally, Fritzell and Lennartsson (2005) have found that within this clear downward flow of financial transfers, there is a class and income gradient as both giving and receiving are more common among people in the higher social strata.…”

“…Since our article does not have a comparative perspective, we will not focus on these macro-level determinants; however, one needs to point out that financial transfers are less common in countries with strong welfare states and developed social policies, which also enable more downward financial flows (from parents to children) (e.g., Björnberg & Ekbrand, 2008;Deindel & Brandt, 2011;Brandt & Deindl, 2013;Mudrazija, 2016). Additionally, the decrease in downward transfers that is a characteristic of the increasing age of parents is slower in sociodemocratic countries than in Mediterranean countries (Mudrazija, 2014). Deindel and Brandt (2011) showed that financial transfers to parents were very rare in Europe as in only 2% of the dyads was money transferred upwards, while financial transfers from parents to children were more frequent, occurring in around 4% of the dyads.…”