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The article presents the results of research on the factors that determine how certain Czech millennials are about their housing and some other life aspirations. We did not primarily look at the content of life aspirations and instead, we examined how certain, confident and concrete young people are about their plans. Using qualitative interviews and an attitude survey we found that intergenerational housing-related within-family resource transfers had a significant impact on how certain young Czechs are about their housing and (some) work and family aspirations. Therefore, whatever the aspirations of young people are, the ability to form them with certainty and confidence is significantly influenced by a factor that is largely out of their control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper seeks to understand whether the current basic endowment insurance policy has properly played the role of supporting the elderly needs through intergenerational support within the family. Theoretically, there are problems of the imbalanced structure of pension security, retirees' comparatively higher pension and the low-level security of young people's in-service income, and drawbacks of the existing endowment insurance system, both have a certain causal relationship with "gnawing the old." Data on China's family tracking survey in 2016 (CFPS2016), Probit model, IV and PSM robustness testing methods were also used to study the relationship between parents' pensions and their grownup children's "gnawing-the-old" behavior. The results show that: (1) Compared with young people from families without pension income, those with pensioned parent(s) will less possibly choose to work; the parents' financial assistance behavior would restrain the children's intention to work and increase the possibility of "gnawing the old"; (2) Neither the amount of pension income nor financial assistance given to the children is significantly related to young people's "gnawing the old"; (3) Young people's "gnawing the old" behaviors are different according to their parents' professions and living areas; (4) The gap between parents' pension income and children's in-service income also adds to the causes of "gnawing the old." The policy implications of these findings are discussed particularly the formulation of a scientific mechanism for pension income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What becomes of class when residential property prices in major cities around the world accrue more income in a year than the average wage worker? This paper investigates the dynamic of combined wage disinflation and asset price inflation as a key to understanding the growth of inequality in recent decades. Taking the city of Sydney, Australia, as exemplary of a dynamic that has unfolded across the Anglo-American economies, it explains how residential property was constructed as a financial asset and how government policies helped to generate the phenomenal house price inflation and unequal capital gains of recent years. Proceeding in close conversation with Thomas Piketty's work on inequality and recent sociological contributions to the question of class, we argue that employment and wage-based taxonomies of class are no longer adequate for understanding a process of stratification in which capital gains, capital income and intergenerational transfers are preeminent. We conclude the paper by outlining a new asset-based class taxonomy which we intend to specify further in subsequent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Norwegian state-owned Petroleum Fund's market value is more than one trillion US dollars, and the Norwegian state has become one of the world's largest stockowners. The Fund was established in 1990 and in 2006 and renamed the 'Government Pension Fund Global', as savings for future generations. What kind of values form the basis for describing the Petroleum Fund in this way? This article shows that the idea that present generations should not empty the North Sea of oil and gas without saving something for future generations has been stable since the 1970s. However, over time, the understanding of how to save has changed. More specifically experts, bureaucrats and politicians have shifted their arguments during four phases: moderation in oil extraction (1974-1983); introduction of the national wealth model (1984-1990); a financial fund for the present and the future (1991-2006); and increased income and new protests (2007-2019). These four periods show that over time the idea of weak sustainability and value commensurability have increasingly come to dominate the argumentation in public documents about the Petroleum Fund. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a representative survey, German citizens are asked whether inherited wealth beyond a certain amount should be taxed. Almost 60 percent state that it should not be taxed. Building on this survey, we identify factors that predict this opposition to the taxation of inherited wealth. We find monetary self-interest, redistributive preferences, and the adherence to traditional values to matter. Women are more likely to oppose wealth transfer taxes. We account for interdependencies to other intrafamilial transfers. Subjects' attitude toward wealth transfer taxes does not depend on their personal experience in giving long-term care. Yet subjects who expect the typical German family to reward intrafamilial caregiving through higher wealth transfers are less likely to oppose the taxation of inherited wealth. The opposite holds for subjects who expect these taxes to incentivize earlier inter vivos transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Thomas Piketty's thesis that there are no natural limits on the accumulation of wealth. We undertake our examination in the context of a simple general equilibrium model with infinitely lived dynasties. We show that extreme wealth accumulation does not happen in general equilibrium unless capital and labor are substitutes, an assumption which also leads to unbalanced growth. We also show that even with unbalanced growth, differences in rates of return and effective labor are not sufficient to cause unbounded inequality. Only permanent savings rate differences can lead to extreme wealth concentration. Finally, we show that while a flat wealth tax will not eliminate extreme wealth concentration, both a graduated wealth tax and a flat income tax will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how parental investments on children affect elderly support, and how this effect is contingent on emotional closeness or parental authority. Data collected from 770 elderly parents residing in rural China were analyzed. We gathered dichotomous data for (a) whether parents invested on their children via financial or instrumental means (i.e., parental investments) and (b) whether parents reported closeness to their children (i.e., emotional closeness) and whether children respected them (i.e., parental authority). We examined the relation between these variables and children’s elderly support (financial, instrumental, and emotional). We tested models in two ways, one examining the direct effect of investments, and another testing the interactions between investments and closeness or authority. We first found that investments were not directly associated with elderly support, although the closeness and authority were. Additionally, the association between investments and support was found within parents who reported authority or closeness with their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From changing diapers and minding the kids when school is out to providing support when they set fire to the carpet, grandparents can be invaluable to have around. What motivates grandparents to lend a hand? Several disciplines have offered answers. The most important accounts come from life-history theory and evolutionary psychology, sociology, and economics. These accounts exist side-by-side, but there is little theoretical integration among them. But regardless of whether grandparental investment is traced back to ancestral selection pressure or attributed to an individual grandparent's values or norms, one important question is, What impact does it have in industrialized, low-fertility, low-mortality societies? We briefly review the initial evidence concerning the impact of grandparental investment in industrialized societies and conclude that in difficult circumstances, grandparents can provide the support that safeguards their grandchildren's development. Additional cross-disciplinary research to examine the effects of intergenerational transfers in our evolutionarily unique environment of grandparenthood is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to contrast the likelihood that a husband's elderly mother receives financial assistance from a couple with that of a wife's mother. Prior U.S.-based research has documented a strong bias toward transfers to wives' parents. The authors aimed to extend this literature to Mexico, where financial help from adult children is a critical source of support for a rapidly aging population lacking institutional assistance. The authors' approach to modeling competition between mothers accounted for the nature of their need. The results demonstrate that among mothers of similar financial need, a husband's mother is twice as likely to receive financial assistance as a wife's mother. In contrast, when faced with personal care needs, a wife's mother is disproportionately favored. These results reflect gender differences in Mexican adult children's responsibility for family members' financial and physical well-being. The findings uncover new complexity in the patterns by which couples transfer money to parents of different lineage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between family dissolution and children's crimes. The study uses a total population sample of a Norwegian birth cohort born in 1982 (N = 49,975) and follows them through the crime statistics from ages 10 to 22 years, applying growth curve modelling. Both married and cohabiting parents are considered. There is a large and significant effect from family dissolution that persists after controlling for important economic confounders, even though these also show a high and significant effect. This suggests that, although some of the effect of parental break-up is explained by socioeconomic conditions, there also seems to be an independent and strong effect of family dissolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study compares how middle-generation caregivers and non-caregivers differ by race and explores racial differences in activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and financial assistance that middle-generation caregivers provide for their parents. Method: Using 2000 Health and Retirement Study data, racially stratified descriptive analyses and logistic regression models for ADL, IADL, and financial assistance are presented. Results: Parental need and race influence support, with similar patterns of Black and White ADL support, but racial differences in IADL and financial support. Having more children motivates Whites to increase IADL support and reduce financial support; more children decreases Blacks' IADL support. Sibling caregiver networks influence IADL and financial support in ways that vary by race. The number employed is a key determinant for Blacks for all support, but only influences White ADL support. Discussion: The findings of this article indicate the importance of sample stratification by race and that employment or other subsidies may aid the expansion of caregiving by middle-generation adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines (a) whether widowhood affects the performance of daily household activities, (b) the extent to which dependence on children mediates the effect of widowhood on subsequent housework performance, and (c) the extent to which these patterns vary by gender. Using the Changing Lives of Older Couples study, a prospective survey of married persons age 65 and older, we find that late-life widowhood is associated with an increase in men's housework, yet does not produce a change in women's subsequent housework performance. Dependency on children mediates the effect of widowhood on housework, suggesting that adult children assist their grieving parents with errands and other household chores. Findings imply that the daily consequences of late-life widowhood are dependent on the individual, dyadic, and intergenerational characteristics of the older adult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from a survey in Songzi County of Hubei Province, this article analyzes the relationship between children's gender and marriage form and their provision of old-age support to their noncoresiding parents in rural China. The results show that children's gender and marriage form have significant influence on their likelihood of giving financial and housework support to their parents, but no significant influence on the amount of financial support or their likelihood of supporting their parents with agricultural labor in peak agricultural seasons. Thus, the authors find that in Songzi, where both virilocal and uxorilocal marriages have been historically accepted and commonly practiced, sons and daughters play basically the same role in providing old-age support for their noncoresiding parents, as do virilocal and uxorilocal couples. The article discusses how these findings relate to current and future problems of old-age security and son preference in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]