IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v55y2018i4d10.1007_s13524-018-0687-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cohort Differences in Parental Financial Help to Adult Children

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Henretta

    (University of Florida)

  • Matthew F. Voorhis

    (Consumers Union
    University of Florida)

  • Beth J. Soldo

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

In this article, we examine birth cohort differences in parents’ provision of monetary help to adult children with particular focus on the extent to which cohort differences in family structure and the transition to adulthood influence these changes. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1994 to 2010, we compare financial help to children of three respondent cohorts as the parents in these birth cohorts from ages 53–58 to 57–62. We find that transfers to children have increased among more recent cohorts. Two trends—declining family size and children’s delay in marriage—account for part of the increase across cohorts. However, other trends, such as the increase in the number of stepchildren and increasing child’s income level, tend to decrease the observed cohort trend.

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Henretta & Matthew F. Voorhis & Beth J. Soldo, 2018. "Cohort Differences in Parental Financial Help to Adult Children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1567-1582, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:55:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0687-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0687-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13524-018-0687-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-018-0687-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liliana E. Pezzin & Barbara Steinberg Schone, 1999. "Intergenerational Household Formation, Female Labor Supply and Informal Caregiving: A Bargaining Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(3), pages 475-503.
    2. McDonald, John F & Moffitt, Robert A, 1980. "The Uses of Tobit Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(2), pages 318-321, May.
    3. Kathleen McGarry & Robert F. Schoeni, 1995. "Transfer Behavior in the Health and Retirement Study: Measurement and the Redistribution of Resources within the Family," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30, pages 184-226.
    4. Brent Berry, 2008. "Financial Transfers from Living Parents to Adult Children: Who Is Helped and Why?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 207-239, April.
    5. M. R. Rosenzweig & Stark, O. (ed.), 1997. "Handbook of Population and Family Economics," Handbook of Population and Family Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    6. Joan Kahn & Frances Goldscheider & Javier García-Manglano, 2013. "Growing Parental Economic Power in Parent–Adult Child Households: Coresidence and Financial Dependency in the United States, 1960–2010," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1449-1475, August.
    7. Robert Schoen & Nicola Standish, 2001. "The Retrenchment of Marriage: Results from Marital Status Life Tables for the United States, 1995," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 553-563, September.
    8. Beth J. Soldo & Martha S. Hill, 1995. "Family Structure and Transfer Measures in the Health and Retirement Study: Background and Overview," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30, pages 108-137.
    9. Altonji, Joseph G & Hayashi, Fumio & Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1997. "Parental Altruism and Inter Vivos Transfers: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1121-1166, December.
    10. Anders Björklund & Donna Ginther & Marianne Sundström, 2007. "Family structure and child outcomes in the USA and Sweden," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(1), pages 183-201, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steele, Fiona & Grundy, Emily, 2021. "Random effects dynamic panel models for unequally-spaced multivariate categorical repeated measures: an application to child-parent exchanges of support," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106255, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Zorlu, Aslan & van Gent, Wouter, 2020. "Economic Assimilation of the 'Third Generation': An Intergenerational Mobility Perspective on Immigration and Integration," IZA Discussion Papers 13855, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Kuha, Jouni & Zhang, Siliang & Steele, Fiona, 2023. "Latent variable models for multivariate dyadic data with zero inflation: analysis of intergenerational exchanges of family support," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116006, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Fiona Steele & Emily Grundy, 2021. "Random effects dynamic panel models for unequally spaced multivariate categorical repeated measures: an application to child–parent exchanges of support," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 70(1), pages 3-23, January.
    5. Adriana M. Reyes, 2022. "Race and Ethnic Differences in Financial Dependency of Coresident Young Adults During Economic Recessions and Over Time," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 51-65, March.
    6. Steele, Fiona & Zhang, Siliang & Grundy, Emily & Burchardt, Tania, 2024. "Longitudinal analysis of exchanges of support between parents and children in the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119908, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mónika López-Anuarbe, 2013. "Intergenerational transfers in long term care," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 235-258, June.
    2. Costa-Font, Joan & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Do Public Caregiving Subsidies and Supports affect the Provision of Care and Transfers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Stefan Hochguertel & Henry Ohlsson, 2009. "Compensatory inter vivos gifts," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 993-1023.
    4. Francois-Charles Wolff & Seymour Spilerman & Claudine Attias-Donfut, 2005. "Do Parents Help More their Less Well-Off Children? Evidence from a Sample of Migrants to France," Microeconomics 0504001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Brent Berry, 2008. "Financial Transfers from Living Parents to Adult Children: Who Is Helped and Why?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 207-239, April.
    6. Kristopher Gerardi & Yuping Tsai, 2014. "The Effect of Social Entitlement Programmes on Private Transfers: New Evidence of Crowding Out," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(324), pages 721-746, October.
    7. Deborah Cobb-Clark & Lisa A Cameron, 2005. "Do Coresidency with and Financial Transfers from Children Reduce the Need for Elderly Parents to Work in Developing Countries?," CEPR Discussion Papers 508, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    8. Christine Ho, 2015. "Grandchild care, intergenerational transfers, and grandparents’ labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 359-384, June.
    9. Juarez, Laura, 2009. "Crowding out of private support to the elderly: Evidence from a demogrant in Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3-4), pages 454-463, April.
    10. repec:dgr:uvatin:20070074 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Stefan Hochguertel & Henry Ohlsson, 2009. "Compensatory inter vivos gifts," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 993-1023.
    12. Fernanda Mazzotta & Lavinia Parisi, 2020. "Money and time: what would you give back to me? Reciprocity between children and their elderly parents in Europe," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(3), pages 941-969, October.
    13. Laura Juarez, 2007. "Altruism, Exchange and Crowding Out of Private Support to the Elderly: Evidence from a Demogrant in Mexico," Working Papers 0707, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    14. Aldieri, Luigi & Fiorillo, Damiano, 2015. "Private monetary transfers and altruism: An empirical investigation on Italian families," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    15. repec:hka:wpaper:2013-20 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    17. Lei, Xiaoyan & Giles, John & Hu, Yuqing & Park, Albert & Strauss, John & Zhao, Yaohui, 2012. "Patterns and correlates of intergenerational non-time transfers : evidence from CHARLS," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6076, The World Bank.
    18. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner, 2009. "Marriage and Divorce since World War II: Analyzing the Role of Technological Progress on the Formation of Households," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 231-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Ana Fernandes, 2011. "Altruism, labor supply and redistributive neutrality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1443-1469, October.
    20. Olivera, Javier, 2017. "The division of inter-vivos parental transfers in Europe," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 41-51.
    21. Max Groneck & Frederic Krehl, 2014. "Bequests and Informal Long-Term Care: Evidence from the HRS Exit Interviews," Working Paper Series in Economics 79, University of Cologne, Department of Economics.
    22. Michael D. Hurd & James P. Smith & Julie Zissimopoulos, 2007. "Inter-vivos Giving Over the Lifecycle," Working Papers WR-524, RAND Corporation.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:55:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s13524-018-0687-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.