Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Singapore Management University

Sociology

Research Collection School Of Economics

Old age support

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Brothers, Sisters, And Support To Older Parents: Separate Spheres Across And Within Support Types?, Christine Ho, Kathleen Mcgarry Jun 2023

Brothers, Sisters, And Support To Older Parents: Separate Spheres Across And Within Support Types?, Christine Ho, Kathleen Mcgarry

Research Collection School Of Economics

Parents in many countries exhibit a strong preference for sons over daughters; a preference that is often observed regarding transfers to children. Here, we ask whether son preference also drives differences in behavior regarding transfers from sons and daughters. We use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine the patterns of giving to parents and find strong evidence of such differentiation. Coresidential support comes almost exclusively from sons as do large transfers, while daughters are more likely to make small transfers. Moreover, crowding-out of financial transfers by siblings occurs primarily within gender: sons give less …


Love, Money, And Parental Goods: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Xu, Lixin Colin Xu May 2017

Love, Money, And Parental Goods: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Xu, Lixin Colin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While parental matchmaking has been widespread throughout history and across countries, we know little about the relationship between parental matchmaking and marriage outcomes. Does parental involvement in matchmaking help ensure their needs are better taken care of by married children? This paper finds supportive evidence using a survey of Chinese couples. In particular, parental involvement in matchmaking is associated with having a more submissive wife, a greater number of children, a higher likelihood of having any male children, and a stronger belief of the husband in providing old age support to his parents. These benefits, however, are achieved at the …


Child's Gender, Parental Monetary Investments And Care Of Elderly Parents In China, Christine Ho Mar 2017

Child's Gender, Parental Monetary Investments And Care Of Elderly Parents In China, Christine Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Son biased investments are common in many Asian countries where sons are customarily responsible for providing old age support to parents. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, I find that parents invested nearly twice more in sons than in daughters in terms of college education spending and marriage gifts value. Conversely, parents received relatively higher marginal returns to investment from daughters than from sons in terms of living proximity, monetary and in-kind transfers, and help with instrumental activities of daily living. Family fixed effects models as well as an instrumental variable strategy are employed to control …


Love, Money And Old Age Support: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Jin, Lixin Colin Xu Feb 2015

Love, Money And Old Age Support: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Jin, Lixin Colin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Parental involvement in matchmaking may distort the choice of spouse because parents are willing to substitute love for market and household production, which are more sharable between parents and their children. This paper finds supportive evidence in a survey of Chinese couples. In both rural and urban areas, parent matchmaking is associated with less marital harmony between the couple, more submissive wives, and a stronger belief in old age support for the son. In contrast, its association with couple income differs by rural and urban regions, perhaps because of differences in earning opportunities and in the enforcement of the one-child …