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How Much Care Do the Aged Receive from Their Children? A Bimodal Picture of Contact and Assistance

Author

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  • Laurence J. Kotlikoff
  • John N. Morris
Abstract
This paper presents some preliminary findings about contact between the aged and their children based on a new survey of the aged and their children, entitled The Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged-NBER (HRC-NBER) Child Survey. Data on extended families is quite limited. The HRC-NBER Child Survey represents one of the few attempts to collect economic and demographic data on the elderly and their children. While these data will be used in future,research to test structural models of the living arrangements, the purposes of the current paper are to describe the survey and to examine contact between the elderly and their children. While our findings are preliminary and will be updated and expanded as we receive more data, it appears that a significant minority of the elderly, many of whom need assistance with the activities of daily living, have either no children or have only limited contact with their children. Contact between children and the vulnerable elderly appears to be less than that between children and the nonvulnerable elderly, and the amount of contact between children and the institutionalized elderly seems the least of all. In addition, although many of the parents in our data are very poor, financial support from children to parents, other than in the form of shared housing, is uncommon. The impression given by these data is that many of the elderly are very well cared for by their children, while a significant minority either have no children or have no children who provide significant time or care. Some of the findings for this sample are striking: (1) over a fifth of the elderly have no children. (2) over one half of the elderly either do not have a daughter or do not have a daughter who lives within an hour of them. (3) over half of single elderly males and females and over two fifths of vulnerable single elderly males and females live completely alone. (4) of the elderly who have children, fewer than a quarter live with their children. (5) a small fraction of elderly with children hear from them at most on a yearly basis. (6) almost 10 percent of the children of the elderly have at most yearly contact. (7) financial assistance from children to the elderly, even in cases where the elderly are quite poor, is extremely rare. (8) in a typical month over a quarter of elderly who have children do not physically spend time with their children.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurence J. Kotlikoff & John N. Morris, 1987. "How Much Care Do the Aged Receive from Their Children? A Bimodal Picture of Contact and Assistance," NBER Working Papers 2391, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2391
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    Cited by:

    1. Frank A. Sloan & Harold H. Zhang & Jingshu Wang, 2002. "Upstream Intergenerational Transfers," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 363-380, October.
    2. Wolff, Francois-Charles & Laferrere, Anne, 2006. "Microeconomic models of family transfers," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 889-969, Elsevier.
    3. Emanuela Cardia & Serena Ng, 1997. "How Important are Intergenerational Transfers of Time? A Macroeconomic Analysis," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 395, Boston College Department of Economics.
    4. Axel Borsch-Supan & Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & John N. Morris, 1992. "The Provision of Time to the Elderly by Their Children," NBER Chapters, in: Topics in the Economics of Aging, pages 109-134, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Pal, Sarmistha, 2007. "Effects of Intergenerational Transfers on Elderly Coresidence with Adult Children: Evidence from Rural India," IZA Discussion Papers 2847, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Axel Borsch-Supan & Laurence J. Kotlikoff & John N. Morris, 1988. "The Dynamics of Living Arrangements of the Elderly," NBER Working Papers 2787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Michael D. Hurd, 1989. "Issues and Results from Research on the Elderly I: Economic Status (Part I of III Parts)," NBER Working Papers 3018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Arntz Melanie & Thomsen Stephan L., 2010. "Are Personal Budgets a Financially Sound Reform Option for the German Long-Term Care Insurance?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 230(4), pages 378-402, August.
    9. Surkov, Alexander, 2009. "Пенсионная Реформа И Межпоколенческий Альтруизм В Моделях Экономической Динамики [Pension reform and intergenerational altruism in economic dynamics models]," MPRA Paper 27632, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Florian Heiss & Michael Hurd & Axel Borsch-Supan, 2003. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Knowing Where to Live: Predicted Trajectories of Health, Wealth and Living Arrangements Among the Oldest Old," NBER Working Papers 9897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Axel Borsch-Supan & Vassilis Hajivassiliou & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1992. "Health, Children, and Elderly Living Arrangements: A Multiperiod-Multinomial Probit Model with Unobserved Heterogeneity and Autocorrelated Errors," NBER Chapters, in: Topics in the Economics of Aging, pages 79-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Donald Cox & Oded Stark, 2007. "On the Demand for Grandchildren: Tied Transfers and the Demonstration Effect," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Happiness, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Sarmistha Pal, 2004. "Do Children Act As Old Age Security in Rural India? Evidence from an Analysis of Elderly Living Arrangements," Labor and Demography 0405002, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Oct 2004.
    14. Sarmistha Pal, 2006. "Elderly Health, Wealth and Co-residence with Adult Children in Rural India," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 06-09, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    15. Thomas Leopold & Thorsten Schneider, 2010. "Family Events and Timing of Intergenerational Transfers," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 327, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Kai A. Konrad & Harald Künemund & Kjell Erik Lommerud & Julio R. Robledo, 2002. "Geography of the Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 981-998, September.
    17. Bettina Isengard & Ronny König & Marc Szydlik, 2018. "Money or space? Intergenerational transfers in a comparative perspective," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 178-200, February.
    18. Shu-Mei Chen & I-Chuan Yang, 2013. "Mobility, Housing Decisions and Economic Status of the Elderly in Taiwan," ERES eres2013_288, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    19. Axel Borsch-Supan & Daniel L. McFadden & Reinhold Schnabel, 1996. "Living Arrangements: Health and Wealth Effects," NBER Chapters, in: Advances in the Economics of Aging, pages 193-216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Yang-Ming Chang & Zijun Luo, 2015. "Endogenous division rules as a family constitution: strategic altruistic transfers and sibling competition," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 173-194, January.
    21. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & John N. Morris, 1990. "Why Don't the Elderly Live with Their Children? A New Look," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Aging, pages 149-172, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Arntz, Melanie & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2008. "Reforming Home Care Provision in Germany: Evidence from a Social Experiment," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-114, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    23. Enkeleda Lulaj, 2020. "Budget Education and Management as a Necessity for Well-Being and Financial Stability: Cluster & MDS Analysis," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(6), pages 348-364, December.
    24. Emanuela Cardia & Serena Ng, 2003. "Intergenerational Time Transfers and Childcare," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(2), pages 431-454, April.
    25. Van Houtven, Courtney Harold & Norton, Edward C., 2008. "Informal care and Medicare expenditures: Testing for heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 134-156, January.

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