Conference Agenda

Exchanges of money, time, and co-residential assistance between older parents and their young-adult children have substantially increased in the United States over recent decades. This may have implications for older adults’ ability and propensity to work longer, as intergenerational transfers shape parents’ financial and time needs and resources. Socio-economic stratification in the relationship between intergenerational transfers and work may also increase inequalities, as concurrent demands from work and family support may be harder to reconcile for individuals of lower socio-economic status groups. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we test the longitudinal relationships among intergenerational exchanges of support and paid work participation among mothers and fathers aged 50-80, and investigate socio-economic gradients in these associations. We find that lower-educated mothers who help their children financially are more likely to remain in paid work, while higher-educated mothers are more likely to leave paid work when providing grandchild care. For fathers, we do not find socio-economic differences in the associations. Our results contribute to the literature on intergenerational transfers, and are timely in the U.S. given the rising rates of intergenerational help and concerns about the adequacy of pensions savings and individuals’ ability to extend their working lives

This paper contributes to the growing field of inquiry that investigates the relation between gender and ageing. The idea is to evaluate how is gender related to subjective perception of social age at oldness by gender and if level of education matter as well.

Using data collected in Round 3 (2006/07) and Round 9 (2018/19) of the European Social Survey which include a module on the timing of life, through simple regression models we show that a “Double Standard” of ageing exist and highlight that education could help to reduce it. Results show that, everywhere, women in mean are perceived to become old before men and men emphasize these feelings. Men give earlier ages regardless of whether they are talking about women or men. From a man point of view in mean a woman becomes old about 2.8 years before woman’s point of view and a man 1.3 years in mean before. This “double standard” pattern exists in all countries in both 2006/07 and 2018/19. Going further, we show that education influences social aging perceptions, especially in the first round and with respect to women. Low educated men perceive an earlier women social age at oldness than low educated women.

In the present study, we explore whether intergenerational relationships within the family are associated with seniors’ economic and social support for young people outside the family. Preliminary findings from ordered logistic estimates on a representative sample of Italian seniors aged 60-75 show a positive association between family relationships and economic and social support for young non-family members. Seniors with close, ongoing relationships with their grandchildren and who provide intensive care to both their children and grandchildren are more likely to provide frequent financial support and to show greater involvement in volunteering for non-family youth. We also examine the influence of contextual features, such as living in rural or urban areas and regional differences in the socioeconomic conditions of the young population. The effect of family relationships on both economic and social support for young non-family members appears to be independent of whether seniors live in rural or urban areas and of the socioeconomic conditions of young people in the region of residence.

As societies face population aging, understanding heterogeneities in the aging process becomes crucial for policy decisions regarding retirement, pensions, and elderly care. This study examines heterogeneties in aging and formal homecare uptake among elderly in Sweden, stratified by foreign background, sex, and education. Using linked Swedish administrative registers from 1980-2022, I adopt two approaches to measure aging: the prospective old age threshold (POAT) - defined as the age at which remaining life expectancy is 15 years - and patterns of homecare use. By constructing period life-tables for different societal groups and analyzing homecare uptake through Kaplan-Meier survival curves, this study examine both when and how people age. The POAT approach offers a dynamic alternative to the fixed chronological threshold of 65 years, accounting for improvements in survival and revealing hidden inequalities between societal groups. Additionally, by examining homecare usage patterns from the onset of prospective old age, this study provides insights into varying levels of care dependency across different population groups. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of aging processes and care needs in an aging soceity while accounting for social inequalities in life-expectancy and health.

The striking heterogeneity in intergenerational mobility across U.S. areas has been linked to exposure to automation of local manufacturing industries and social capital within local communities. While these two factors have not been considered jointly, we hypothesize there are important interaction effects, but that the type of social capital matters.But a priori it is unclear whether "open" (low clustering) and heterophilous (friendships between diverse individuals) networks with lower clustering of disadvantage or "closed" and homophilous networks with higher trust and cooperation within cohesive groups are more beneficial.

We use data across U.S. commuting zones on social capital (Facebook data); exposure to automation (IFR robot adoption and Census employment shares by industry); and intergenerational mobility (U.S. tax records). Controlling for covariates and using robot adoption in Europe as Instrumental Variable, we find that areas with ``open” and economic diverse networks show much larger negative relationships between automation and intergenerational mobility. This suggests that trust and cooperation within cohesive, "closed” networks are crucial for alleviating the negative automation shock and that the automation shock deteriorates opportunity structures, thus eliminating the positive effects of exchange in "open” and diverse networks.