The structure of intergenerational exchange in the UK
Tak Wing Chan
University of Oxford
In this paper, I analyse recent survey data from the British Household Panel Survey on the exchange relationship between adult children and their non-co-resident parents. Using latent class models, three types of exchange relationship are identified: (1) those who rarely exchange help with their parents ("low level exchangers"), (2) those who are involved in regular giving and receiving of help with their parents ("high level exchangers"), (3) those who primarily give support to their parents ("givers"). I then explore the social-demographic characteristics of the three types of exchange relationship, and consider the welfare implications of intergenerational exchange for the respondents.
E-mail tw.chan@sociology.ox.ac.uk
Family members' decisions
Joaquín Andaluz, Miriam Marcén and José Alberto Molina
University of Zaragoza
This paper analyses the relationship between intergenerational transfer and public transfer, the effects of these transfers on labour decision and the consequences for intra-family allocation. No one family can be truly representative, but we have chosen a family with three generations, with two adults generations (the donor and the recipient) living apart, and a third generation being the children of the recipient. The analysis combines two approaches which to date, have been considered independently in the literature: the treatment of the so-called inter-generational transmission models; and, the so-called family bargaining models. Using a simple two-stage model we determine first the optimum level of the transfer, we consider that donors are capable of predicting others' actions and feelings, that is, empathically establish a link between the capacity to know emotionally the recipient's motives and the donor's own motives. In the second stage, the levels of provision of a household good and the effort are deduced by way of a Nash bargaining solution with the threat point being represented by the situation of divorce. After proving that individual preferences matter for intergenerational transfers, we have found that private transfers will interact with public transfers in a way different from the Beckerian altruist model, and that increases in spouses' wages have greater effects on welfare in the situation of divorce than in the situation of marriage.
E-mail: jamolina@unizar.es , mmarcen@unizar.es , jandaluz@unizar.es
Preparation for new estimates of lone-parents
Hannah McConnell and Steve Smallwood
Office for National Statistics
In this presentation we will present some of the preparatory work produced as part of the production of new best estimates of lone parents. Estimates of lone parents can be obtained from a number of different sources. ONS currently has a method of producing periodic 'best estimates' by combining data from several surveys. The last set of estimates provided figures up to 2000, although the figures for 1998-2000 were regarded as provisional. Work is being carried out to update the estimates using the method previously used but the opportunity is also being taken to review the estimates in the light of the results of the 2001 Census and subsequent work that has been done to look at non-response in surveys.
E-mail: Steve.smallwood@ons.gov.uk
Cohabitation: Changes over the 1990s and longitudinal evidence on transitions in status.
Lynda Clarke & Julian Buxton
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The Law Commission have recently published a consultation paper on financial remedies for cohabitants on relationship breakdown and death. Details of the project are available at http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/192.htm . This paper forms part of the analysis undertaken for them using the ONS LS to examine the circumstances of cohabitants and transition in relationships. It examines the socio-economic situation of cohabitants and married people in 1991 and 2001 as well as longitudinal changes in these over the ten years. Transitions in relationship status over the ten years are examined for both cohabitants and married LS members.
The full report also examines differences in mortality rates between cohabitants and married people and the circumstances of same sex cohabitants.
Email: lynda.clarke@lshtm.ac.uk