Pro-Elderly Welfare States within Pro-Child Societies: Incorporating Family Cash and Time into Intergenerational Transfers Analysis

Abstract

Households and social policies both serve as vehicles of lifecycle financing through intergenerational transfers, with working-age people as net contributors and children and the elderly as beneficiaries. However, there is a marked socialization asymmetry. Working-age people pay taxes and social security contributions to care for the elderly as a generation, but they spend money and contribute time to raise their own children. This results in asymmetric statistical visibility. Transfers to the elderly are near-fully observed in National Accounts; those to children much less so. Analyzing ten European societies, we employ National Transfer Accounts to also include private transfers (cash), and National Time Transfer Accounts to value the time transferred within and between households (unpaid labor). Contrary to received wisdom, aging societies transfer more resources to children than to the elderly.

Keywords: Household Economy, Young and Old, Care Work, Child Rearing, Families, National Transfer Accounts