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As young people transition to adulthood, many rely on financial support from their parents to complete schooling and to live independently. Evidence suggests that there has been a gradual lengthening of the time young adults take to transition to adulthood. Young people attempting to move out of their parents’ home, complete college, or enter the workforce during the Great Recession faced uncertain economic times, increasing their need for financial support. At the same time, the income and wealth losses experienced by young adults’ parents may have disrupted transfers from them. We analyze the impact of large and unexpected declines in parents’ income and wealth during and immediately after the Great Recession on monetary transfers to their young adult children using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the PSID Transition to Adulthood study. We find parents’ financial support of their young adult children declined during the Great Recession. The likelihood of receiving a transfer declined from 74% in 2005 to 57% in 2009. Parents’ loss of income was a factor in the amount of decrease but on average was relatively modest – a $10,000 parental income loss decreased transfers to their adult children by $109. However, parents experiencing large declines in income, those at the 75(th) and 95(th) percentile of income loss, reduced transfers to adult children by $1,150 and $1,700, respectively. Declines in parental transfers that reduce college completion rates, increase student loan debt and decrease likelihood of homeownership may have long term consequences for financial well-being.

This study helps expand our knowledge on the link between caregiving and work by examining how characteristics of caregiving—intensity and regularity of care—relate to work. It is among the first studies to recognize that regularity of care might be linked with work independently of intensity of care. Moreover, unlike previous studies that imply the impact of caregiving on work based on the difference in the likelihood of working and total hours worked between caregivers and non-caregivers, our study uses the explicit reports from caregivers of the impact of caregiving on their ability to do paid work and, conditional on working, hours of work lost due to caregiving. We pool data from the first three waves of the National Study on Caregiving (NSOC) that has detailed information on family and other unpaid caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older. We use a structural equation modeling approach to accommodate the complex nature of the relationships between work-related outcomes, intensity and regularity of care as the key predictors of interest, and other relevant caregivers’ and care recipients’ personal characteristics that are related with both the outcomes of interest and key predictors. Results provide tentative evidence that caregivers are more likely to miss work and, if working, work fewer hours if they provide more care and if they need to provide it more frequently. At any given level of caregiving intensity, more frequent care provision is related with more adverse work-related outcomes.

As the coronavirus crisis spreads swiftly through the population, it takes a particularly heavy toll on minority individuals and older adults, with older minority adults at especially high risk. Given the shockingly high rates of infections and deaths in nursing homes, staying in the community appears to be a good option for older adults in this crisis, but in order for some older adults to do so much assistance is required. This situation draws attention to the need for benevolent intervention on the part of the state should older adults become ill or lose their sources of income and support during the crisis. This essay provides a brief overview of public support and the financial and health benefits for older individuals who remain in the community during the pandemic. It reports the case example of Austin, Texas, a city with a rapidly aging and diverse population of almost a million residents, to ask how we can assess the success of municipalities in responding to the changing needs of older adults in the community due to COVID-19. It concludes with a discussion of what governmental and non-governmental leadership can accomplish in situations such as that brought about by the current crisis.

Aging of the population and the growing preference for privacy and independence make older adults living alone one of the fastest- growing segments of the population. However, data suggest that a substantial segment of this population, especially women whose spouses passed away or who experienced late-life marital dissolution, often suffers greater financial hardship than persons living in family households. Public support for older adults can alleviate the financial strain of living alone in the community, but as of yet we have a limited understanding of its availability and impact across countries. In this study, we analyze data for 19 European countries from the 2011–2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, and for the United States from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study to compare cross-national income and wealth profiles of the 60 and over population living alone. We fit logistic regression models to assess cross-national differences in the likelihood of living alone by income and wealth groups, and multilevel models to estimate the impact of public support on living alone. The results show that the likelihood of living alone is higher in generous welfare states, and measures of social spending and support have positive impact on it. Simultaneously, the link between personal economic resources and living alone has a smaller positive gradient in countries with robust welfare systems. We discuss the results in the context of policies that support older adults living alone and draw lessons for the United States and other countries.

Supplemental Material, Supplemental_Material for Living Alone in the United States and Europe: The Impact of Public Support on the Independence of Older Adults by Stipica Mudrazija, Jacqueline L. Angel, Ivan Cipin and Sime Smolic in Research on Aging

To capture the simultaneity of changes in different types of family transfers and describe the pattern of rebalancing of intergenerational family support in response to variation in public support, it is important to study bidirectional flows of resources between family generations. This study uses data on 13 European countries to estimate the net value of transfers between parents and adult children and to determine the relationship of the net value of family transfers with public intergenerational transfers. Individual-level data come from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and are supplemented with the country-level information from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations, and national statistical offices. Multilevel models are estimated to account for the nested structure of data. The results suggest that the needs of parents and children and their ability to provide support are important determinants of the flow of net transfers between ...

As Americans have become increasingly indebted over time, understanding the factors influencing indebtedness is increasingly important and can help policymakers design policies that discourage debt, thus enhancing private retirement savings so that retirees become less dependent on Social Security benefits. The paper uses data from a major credit bureau of a nationally representative 2 percent random sample from more than 250 million consumer records to examine the financial health and indebtedness of older adults. The data cover the years 2010 through 2018 and follow the same consumers over time. They are supplemented with the zip-code level information from the American Community Survey on neighborhood characteristics, including racial and ethnic composition, education, median income, and poverty. Our preliminary findings suggest that, while the proportion of older adults in serious financial distress is not substantial, their indebtedness is increasing and the growth of unsecured debt (e.g., student debt) has been especially fast. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Economics of Aging Interest Group.

Social networks are critical for end-of-life decision-making and hands on support and may also impact end-of-life outcomes including location of death. Yet we fail to consider these factors in the context of cultural values and variation in healthcare system financing and resources, e.g., availability of palliative care. Using SHARE, we examined the following factors for 6,391 decedents across 13 countries interviewed in the last year of life: family size, living alone, and size and characteristics of social networks. We compared these characteristics cross-nationally for persons dying at home as opposed to in hospital and other formal settings. While individuals with larger social networks are more likely to die at home, we find a cross-national gradient of higher unmet healthcare needs resulting in overall more home-based deaths. Our findings suggest that individual factors such as family availability must be considered in the context of country-level factors when examining quality end-of-life indicators.

This study assessed Latinos’ retirement security, including their financial resources and retirement needs, showing past trends and future prospects. Using data from the American Community Survey, decennial censuses, and Health and Retirement Study, tabulations compared poverty rates, income and wealth, health and disability, relationship status, and household composition for Latinos and non-Latinos ages 65 and older. The Urban Institute’s Dynamic Simulation of Income Model also projected income and wealth for future generations. The results show that older Latinos receive less income, hold less wealth, and are more likely to be impoverished than older non-Latino whites. Financial outcomes are significantly worse for older foreign-born Latinos than for those born in the United States. However, projections indicate that the gaps will narrow somewhat in coming decades. Various policy options, such as workforce development initiatives, efforts to promote education and retirement savings, and Social Security reforms that increase benefit progressivity could improve financial security for future Hispanic retirees.

Objectives Most older adults prefer to "age in place" and avoid formal long-term care. Yet demographic shifts, including population aging and an increasing prevalence of remarried and unmarried older adults, could undermine these goals, making it important to consider carefully how and why relationship status relates to long-term care risk. Method We fit hazard models to a sample of adults aged 65 and older from eight waves (1998-2012) of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 21,564). We consider risk of any long-term care facility admission, as well as risk of long-duration stays. Results Widowed, divorced, and never married adults have the highest risks of long-term care admission. Remarried and partnered adults have similar risks of long-term care admission as continuously married adults. Relationship status is more important for men than for women, especially when considering long-duration stays. Relationship status is also more significant for non-Hispanic White and Hispanic adults compared with non-Hispanic Black adults. Economic resources and, to some extent, social ties partially explain the association between relationship status and long-term care use. Discussion By addressing the prohibitive costs of long-term care services which enable aging in place (e.g., home health care), relationship status disparities in long-term care may be reduced. Future studies should consider the link between long-term care facility use and relationship status in future cohorts as well as examine how relationship status structures access to a range of long-term care options.

Introduction This study investigates the relationship between gender, the likelihood of discharge from institutional long-term care (LTC) facilities, and post-discharge living arrangements, highlighting sociodemographic, health, socioeconomic, and family characteristics. Methods We use the Health and Retirement Study to examine individuals age 65 and older admitted to LTC facilities between 2000 and 2010 ( n = 3,351). We examine discharge patterns using survival analyses that account for the competing risk of death and estimate the probabilities of post-discharge living arrangements using multinomial logistic regression models. Results Women are more likely than men to be discharged from LTC facilities during the first year of stay. Women are more likely to live alone or with kin after discharge, whereas men are more likely to live with a spouse or transfer to another institution. Gender differences in the availability and use of family support may partly account for the gender disparity of LTC discharge and post-discharge living arrangements. Conclusion Our findings suggest that women and men follow distinct pathways after LTC discharge. As local and federal efforts begin to place more emphasis on the transition from LTC facilities to prior communities (e.g., transitional care initiatives under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), policymakers should take these gender differences into account in the design of community transition programs.

Relatively few Americans have accumulated substantial savings outside of their employer-sponsored retirement plans, yet most own their homes. The traditional view of the retirement income system as a three-legged stool supported by Social Security, private pensions, and savings may be better viewed as being supported by Social Security, pensions, and homeownership. Country-specific economic, social, and political developments throughout modern history mean that homeownership rates and the relative importance of homeownership for old-age security vary widely across developed countries. Many countries, however, are increasingly promoting homeownership as an effective way of building assets, a de facto self-insurance mechanism for old-age security, and a substitute for various social transfers. This paper uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to better understand the role of homeownership in retirement before and after the Great Recession for the United States and nine Western European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. It begins by comparing trends in homeownership rates among older adults and the key characteristics of housing-related policies and regulations that potentially impact home acquisition. It then examines home equity trends, the prevalence and burden of housing debt, and the relative importance of housing as a source of retirement wealth. Next it provides an overview of equity release options and estimates how much older households could increase their incomes by fully monetizing their housing equity. Finally, the paper discusses the prospects for and limits of home equity release and asset-based welfare policies. The paper found that: -Most older adults are homeowners, and homeownership rates generally increased between 2006 and 2012; however, there is substantial variation across countries. -Housing-related policies in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark provide comparatively high levels of support to both homeowners and non-homeowners, while those in Italy and Spain provide little support to either group. In contrast, housing policies in the United States provide some of the highest levels of support for homeowners and lowest levels of support for non-homeowners. -Older American homeowners have substantial housing wealth, but compared with their European peers, housing represents a somewhat smaller part of their net total wealth. -While the prevalence of housing debt among older adults is somewhat lower in the United States than in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, among older homeowners with housing debt, Americans have the highest loan-to-value ratios and the highest proportion of homeowners whose homes may be at risk of going underwater. -If the housing equity of older Americans were completely monetized, median household income would increase by over a third – more than in countries like Sweden and Denmark, but well below countries like Spain and Italy. Across all countries in this study, tapping into housing equity could substantially reduce the share of older adults with household incomes below 50 percent of the median – the threshold for relative poverty. -However, even after annuitizing housing wealth, the share of poor older Americans would remain as high as, or higher than, the share of poor older Europeans before accounting for annuitized housing wealth. -Despite the potentially large impact of monetizing home equity on household incomes and the economic security of older Americans and Europeans, there remain impediments to tapping into home equity that may explain its low use. Objective obstacles include the high costs of withdrawing housing equity, uncertainty about life expectancy and the amount of financial resources required to support retirement, the adverse impact on eligibility for social benefits, and the concentration of housing wealth among (upper) middle- and higher-income individuals who are less likely to need additional resources in old age. Subjective obstacles include an aversion toward assuming additional debt in old age, different (often emotional) attitudes to housing compared with other types of wealth, bequest motives, and a lack of trust in financial institutions. The policy implications of the findings are: -Home equity has a potentially important yet limited role in supporting old-age security. Even if objective obstacles related to the design and pricing of home equity release products were fully addressed, subjective reasons for avoiding home equity withdrawal and compositional differences in the concentration of housing wealth would still limit the scope of asset-based welfare. -These limitations notwithstanding, using home equity to supplement retirement incomes and improve retirement security remains a potentially attractive option for a substantial number of older adults who have built housing wealth over their life course, but may either have insufficient retirement incomes or face unexpected and expensive life events (e.g. long-term care needs). -What remains more uncertain and difficult to predict, though, are the long-run prospects for using home equity to support old-age security since younger generations of Americans and Europeans may find it more difficult to build home equity than their parents’ generation.

Objective: This study examines differences in retirement decisions between older Hispanics and non-Hispanics, with a special focus on the role of nativity. Methods: We use 1998-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. We estimate survival models of retirement and compare retirement transitions for U.S.-born Hispanics, foreign-born Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and non-Hispanic Blacks. Results: Foreign-born Hispanics retire significantly later than other racial and ethnic groups. Controlling for personal characteristics, their risk of retirement is 39% lower compared with non-Hispanic Whites. Retirement transitions do not differ significantly between U.S.-born Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites. Discussion: Difference in retirement timing between U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics may partly be due to lower incomes and wealth accumulation of foreign-born Hispanics. Workforce development initiatives, policy initiatives promoting retirement savings, and Social Security reforms could improve future retirement security for older Hispanics, and make retirement a viable option for more foreign-born Hispanics.

Older Americans living in the community who need help with basic activities of daily living overwhelmingly rely on unpaid care provided most commonly by working-age family members. Because unpaid family care limits the demand for nursing facilities and reduces expenses paid by Medicaid and other government programs, previous estimates of its economic value have mostly focused on estimating the benefits of unpaid family care. However, to assess accurately the overall economic value of unpaid family care and define better the scope for policy intervention, it is also important to account for the costs of such care, yet our knowledge of their magnitude remains limited. This study assesses the impact of unpaid family caregiving on the likelihood of working and hours worked for caregivers, and calculates the related cost of forgone earnings today and in 2050. To do so, it matches family caregivers from the National Study of Caregiving with non-caregivers from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and uses projections from the Urban Institute’s DYNASIM microsimulation model to inform calculations of future costs of foregone earnings. Results suggest that the cost of foregone earnings attributable to caregiving is currently about $67 billion. By mid-century, it will likely more than double, outpacing the growth of disabled older population as the share of better-educated caregivers with higher earning capacity increases. Policymakers can use these results to inform their current and future policy efforts aimed at assisting family caregivers who are facing the challenge of balancing work and caregiving responsibilities.

The aim of this study is to determine the likelihood and net amount of parent-child transfers over the adult life cycle across European welfare regimes. The study introduces an economic life-cycle model of family transfers to describe the evolution of family exchanges across generations over time, which reveals a nonlinear relationship of age and net family transfers. Furthermore, it refines the method of estimating parent-child net transfers. Data come from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and include 36,095 parent-child dyads from 11 European countries representing social democratic, conservative, and traditional welfare-state regimes. The findings reveal net value of family intergenerational support follows a nonlinear pattern across the adult life cycle, with positive transfers from parents to adult children decreasing modestly until advanced old age when the decrease intensifies. Net family support benefits individuals and generations with larger relative need. The transition in the net family support pattern starts later and is less pronounced across social democratic welfare-regime countries while the opposite is true in traditional welfare-regime countries. These findings might be interpreted as being linked to differences in the public policies guaranteeing different levels of provision for dependent populations across different welfare regimes. They are consistent with a comparatively smaller role of family support in the intergenerational redistribution of resources in societies with larger public intergenerational support to dependent populations.

Mexican return migrant population is increasing, yet our knowledge about their lives after resettlement in Mexico remains fragmentary. Using 2001–2012 longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study, we investigate difference in household composition for older migrants who returned from the United States compared to nonmigrants. Furthermore, we fit a Cox proportional hazards model to assess the relationship between household composition and health and functional trajectories of return migrants and nonmigrants. The results indicate that return migrants with long duration of U.S. stay have different household composition than nonmigrants or short-term migrants: On average, they have smaller household size, including fewer females who may be available to offer assistance to older adults. Presence of middle-age females in the household has positive effects on health and functional trajectories. We highlight implications of this research for policy makers in Mexico and the United States.

The population is aging in both the developed and developing world, and the United States is no exception. It is well established that Americans are living longer. US life expectancy at birth increased from 70.8 in 1970 to 78.7 in 2010. For those aged 65, remaining life expectancy rose from 15.2 years to 19.1 years over the same time period. Perhaps most importantly, and the focus of this chapter, as the nation grows older it is rapidly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Currently, there is less racial/ethnic diversity in the population 65 and older than among younger Americans. However, the older population is expected to be 42% minority by 2050 (US Census Bureau, 2011). The dual trends of increased life expectancy and the growing diversity of the aging population raise important theoretical and practical questions about race-based inequalities in health and their consequences for health care spending in light of projected deficits in Medicare.

Background: The last decade has seen considerable research into intergenerational financial transfers in Europe. This research has produced significant insights into the nature, causes, and consequences of such transfers, as well as evidence of cross-national variation. Yet the findings of this research field are almost exclusively based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The dependency on SHARE data and this specific methodological approach may limit the inferences made by researchers examining intergenerational transfers in Europe. Objective: This paper aims to explore whether instruments designed to measure intergenerational financial transfers are sensitive to various methodological parameters. Specifically, whether the prompts, reference period, and respondent identity affect the number and size of transfers that are reported. Methods: To achieve this we compare data from SHARE and the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) using Propensity Score Matching to identify which survey reports the most transfers and whether these differences are stable across sub-groups. We also utilise specific features of SHARE and the GGP to examine whether variations in the reference period or asking the transfer giver or receiver affects the level of behaviour reported. Results: The results show that the instruments are highly sensitive to changes in wording, the reference period, and the identity of the respondent. This suggests that existing findings in the literature may be sensitive to the specific methodology used by SHARE. Conclusions: Whilst SHARE is an excellent data source, we would encourage studies of intergenerational transfers to validate their findings with multiple data sources. Contribution: The analysis shows the important role played by survey instruments in shaping research findings with regard to intergenerational relations

Our understanding of the migration processes can be substantially improved by examining the “contexts of premigration experiences” including the environmental conditions that motivated migration and personal preparedness to facilitate the physical transition as well as the “contexts of reception” such as structural factors and social resistance to migrants encountered in local areas of resettlement. This section of the volume connects the worlds of migrating and non-migrating people of Mexican heritage in the U.S. and Mexico, and examines selected issues accompanying consequences of resettlement and rebuilding lives and lifestyles. The chapters reflect major domains of transnational research in aging: impacts of migration and social adjustment, processes of support in families and social networks, and the impact of changing demography and residential status for foreign-born migrants in the U.S. The studies presented in this section benefit from a higher quantity and quality of cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data to study migratory patterns and regional variation in resettlement, differences in societal integration, and the connection of these patterns with health and healthcare.

This study investigates how health- and disability-based need factors and enabling factors (e.g., socioeconomic and family-based resources) relate to nursing home admission among 3 different racial and ethnic groups.We use Cox proportional hazard models to estimate differences in nursing home admission for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Hispanics from 1998 to 2010 in the Health and Retirement Study (N = 18,952).Racial-ethnic differences in nursing home admission are magnified after controlling for health- and disability-based need factors and enabling factors. Additionally, the degree to which specific factors contribute to risk of nursing home admission varies significantly across racial-ethnic groups.Our findings indicate that substantial racial and ethnic variations in nursing home admission continue to exist and that Hispanic use is particularly low. We argue that these differences may demonstrate a significant underuse of nursing homes for racial and ethnic minorities. Alternatively, they could signify different preferences for nursing home care, perhaps due to unmeasured cultural factors or structural obstacles.

Publisher Summary The topic of inheritance has taken on new meaning in social discourses on aging within numerous disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Understanding the social dimensions of giving across generations is key to understanding how changes in traditional expectations and practices will affect family life in general, and how adult children and their elderly parents will receive support, as they grow older. Inheritance and bequests can have a significant impact on retirement security and quality of life as people grow older. The two dominant explanations of motivations for intergenerational transfers (altruism and exchange) have interesting implications for the expected relationship between public and private transfers before and after death. This chapter provides a basic understanding of what is known about the concept of inheritance and gift-giving in terms of how older people balance the competing claims of helping family members during their lifetimes, saving for old age, and leaving a meaningful inheritance. One study of family inheritance practices based on in-depth interviews of late-life families examines differences based on social characteristics in exchange patterns, the feelings of commitment toward performing roles and to meeting filial obligations, and the extent to which economic factors constrain the decision to give gifts in later life. Further study of the social implications of inheritance for baby boomers and generations to come is also needed, including analyses of the impact of wealth transfers among family members during their lifetimes as well as at death.