The generational conflict reconsidered

Abstract

The eclipse of the 20th century appears to coincide with the waning of the old industrial class divide. It remains an open question whether an alternative class-based stratification system is evolving but, in the meantime, both sociologists and economists have begun to identify new cleavage patterns. One which has sparked considerable attention is the possibility that chronos will become a battleground of conflicting interests (Preston, Summary The deteriorating trend in the incomes of families with young children is of increasing concern to both academics and politicians. Since the well-being of the elderly has improved concomitantly, many see an emerging generational clash. We argue that this zero-sum distributional trade-off view is largely premised on an overly static analysis and prefer, as an alternative, to examine the age-distribution of well-being through the lens of cohort dynamics. The aim of this article is very policy applied, an attempt to identify a win-win policy model that simultaneously ensures child and elderly welfare. We argue that social investments in children now will have strong and positive secondary effects in terms of helping maintain welfare guarantees for the elderly in the future. The key lies in minimizing child poverty, and we evaluate which policy mix may prove most effective for this end. We conclude that, in most countries, the elimination of poverty in families with children would be surprisingly affordable.Key words families with children, family benefits, mothers' employment, poverty, sustaining the welfare of the elderly Résumé La tendance à une détérioration des revenus des familles avec de jeunes enfants constitue une inquiétude croissante tant dans les milieux académiques que politiques. Dans le même temps le bien-être des personnes âgées s'est amélioré, et beaucoup y voit la possibilité d'un clash générationnel. Nous arguons que cette approche d'un échange distributionnel à somme nulle est largement basée sur une analyse complètement statique. Nous préférons adopter comme approche alternative la distribution du bien être par âge à la lumière des dynamiques par cohorte. L'objectif de cet article est résolument policy oriented et constitue une tentative d'identifier un modèle politique gagnant/gagnant qui assure en même temps le bien être des enfants et des personnes âgées. Notre argument principal est que des investissements sociaux en faveur des enfants maintenant auront des effets secondaires importants et positifs aidant à maintenir les garanties pour les personnes âgées dans le futur. L'élément clé est de réduire la pauvreté des enfants et nous éva-luons quel policy-mix peut être le plus efficace pour rencontrer cet objectif. Nous concluons que dans la plupart des pays l'élimination de la pauvreté des familles avec enfants pourrait être de manière étonnante relativement peu chère.

Familia, empleo femenino y reproducción en España: incidencia de los factores estructurales

“…tencia de pautas demográficas de fecundidad reducida con formas familiares tradicionales en Europa del sur (Zuanna y Micheli, 2004), los investigadores han resaltado la debilidad del Estado de bienestar y la importancia de la solidaridad familiar como red de protección social (Esping-Andersen y Sarasa, 2002;Moreno Mínguez, 2007); la elevada temporalidad y desempleo de los jóvenes (Ahn y Mira, 2001;González y Jurado, 2006), así como el inflexible e inaccesible mercado de la vivienda (Kohler et al, 2006). También se ha señalado como posible causa interviniente en este hecho la desigualdad existente en las relaciones de género en el ámbito privado familiar, que no se corresponde con las expectativas de igualdad generadas en el ámbito público (McDonald, 2000).…”

Challenges in moving from macro to micro: Population and family structures in ageing societies

“…In sharp contrast, children today are about seven times more likely to have all four grandparents living than was the case in 1900 (Uhlenberg 1996;Hagestad and Uhlenberg 2007). Recent discussions of widening inequalities among children (Esping-Andersen and Sarasa 2002;Sørensen 2005) make it clear that we must map children's kin resources and seek to understand how intergenerational ties, especially to grandparents, contribute to children's social and cultural capital (Hagestad 2008b). Comprehensive studies of the availability and contributions of grandparents to boys and girls are needed, especially in countries with strongly imbalanced sex ratios in the older population.…”

An Analysis of Equity in Redistribution to the Retired and Children over Recent Decades in the OECD and UK

“…Given this, it might be expected that, as well as a shift in total expenditure from children to the retired due to demography, there would also be a shift in expenditure from children to the retired in order to maintain their living standards in retirement. Esping-Andersen and Sarasa (2002) have expressed anxiety that population ageing might impose pressures on governments to maintain high spending on the retired at the expense of children and have argued on the basis of welfare regime types that the bias in favour of the aged is especially pronounced in Southern European welfare states while Scandinavian welfare states are more youth biased.…”