McGarry K, Schoeni R F
Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1997 May;52 Spec No:82-92.
When individuals fall on hard times, can they rely on their family for financial support? In view of proposed reductions in public assistance programs, it is important to understand the mechanisms through which families provide support for their members. In this article we provide evidence that intrafamily transfers are compensatory, directed disproportionately to less well-off members. In a given year, adult children in the lowest income category are 50 percent more likely to receive a financial transfer from their parents, and on average they receive over $300 more than their siblings who are in the highest income category. The dataset used in the new Asset and Health Dynamics (AHEAD) study contains information on all children in the family; therefore, we are able to estimate models that control for unobserved differences across families. Our results are robust to these specifications. In addition, we do not find evidence that parents provide financial assistance to their children in exchange for caregiving.
当个人陷入困境时，他们能依靠家人获得经济支持吗？鉴于公共援助项目拟议的削减，了解家庭为其成员提供支持的机制很重要。在本文中，我们提供证据表明家庭内部转移是补偿性的，不成比例地流向较贫困的成员。在某一年，收入最低类别的成年子女从父母那里获得经济转移的可能性比收入最高类别的兄弟姐妹高出50%，并且平均而言，他们比收入最高类别的兄弟姐妹多收到300多美元。新的资产与健康动态（AHEAD）研究中使用的数据集包含了家庭中所有子女的信息；因此，我们能够估计出控制家庭间未观察到的差异的模型。我们的结果在这些设定下是稳健的。此外，我们没有发现父母为子女提供经济援助以换取照料服务的证据。
