School of Economics, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Demography. 2022 Aug 1;59(4):1353-1376. doi: 10.1215/00703370-10055057.
While the literature shows that elderly parents may use bequests to reward children who provide them with time support, there is limited evidence on whether younger, less needy parents base their intended bequest division on alternative forms of support from children. This study uses data from the June 2018 Singapore Life Panel and focuses on a sample of 4,125 adult children and their middle-aged and older parents. From family fixed-effects estimation, I find that parents intend to leave larger bequest shares to coresident children and to children who provide greater material support. Parents also intend to bequeath more to children in whom they confide frequently, while children in whom they confide rarely receive more bequests only if they provide greater material support. The results suggest that parents may interpret physical and emotional proximity to children as signs of filiality for which they may reward them, while detached children may earn such rewards through material support. This study demonstrates the existence of coresidence-for-bequest and money-for-bequest exchanges between adult children and their middle-aged and older parents. These exchanges may translate into future caregiving-for-bequests when parents become elderly, and may thus have broader implications for both individual and societal well-being.
虽然文献表明，年长的父母可能会通过遗产赠予来奖励那些为他们提供时间支持的子女，但关于年轻、需求较低的父母是否会根据子女提供的其他形式的支持来决定其遗产分配，这方面的证据有限。本研究使用了 2018 年 6 月新加坡生活面板的数据，重点关注了一个由 4125 名成年子女及其中年和老年父母组成的样本。通过家庭固定效应估计，我发现父母打算将更大份额的遗产留给与他们同住的子女和提供更多物质支持的子女。父母也打算将更多遗产留给经常向他们倾诉的子女，而很少向他们倾诉的子女只有在提供更多物质支持的情况下，才会收到更多的遗产。研究结果表明，父母可能会将与子女的身体和情感上的亲近视为孝顺的迹象，并因此奖励他们，而疏远的子女可能会通过物质支持获得这种奖励。本研究证明了成年子女与其中年和老年父母之间存在“同住换遗产”和“金钱换遗产”的交换。当父母年老时，这些交换可能会转化为未来的“照顾换遗产”，因此对个人和社会福祉都有更广泛的影响。
