Grandchild care and eldercare. A quid pro quo arrangement

[en] The phenomenon of grandparents assuming the role of caretakers for their grandchildren is substantial and on the rise; a trend partially attributed to mothers’ increased participation in the workforce. While altruism is commonly assumed to be the primary driver behind such caregiving, we examine an additional motivation: the expectation among grandparents that they will receive care from their offspring in the event of their own incapacity. This study investigates this hypothesis from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Initially, we construct a theoretical framework, delineating a sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium model wherein the grandparent first commits to caring for the grandchild, followed by anticipation of receiving care from their adult child in disability scenarios. Subsequently, we empirically test the feasibility of this model by analysing data sourced from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Our results confirm that elderly parents who cared for their grandchildren received more support from their children in the case of a loss of autonomy.

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)

Author, co-author :

Lefebvre, Mathieu ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Ecole de Gestion de l'Université de Liège ; University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France ; BETA, France ; CNRS, France

Pestieau, Pierre ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Ecole de Gestion de l'Université de Liège ; CORE, Belgium ; TSE, Belgium

Schoenmaeckers, Jérome ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège Research > HEC Liège Research: Economic analysis and policy

Language :

English

Title :

Grandchild care and eldercare. A quid pro quo arrangement

Publication date :

May 2025

Journal title :

Economic Modelling

ISSN :

0264-9993

eISSN :

1873-6122

Publisher :

Elsevier

Volume :

146

Pages :

107006

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S026499932500001X?httpAccept=text/xml

Funding text :

IdEx Unistra (ANR-10-IDEX-0002)SFRI-STRAT'US project (ANR-20-SFRI-0012)FdR/SCOR Chair \u2018March\u00E9s des risques et cr\u00E9ation de valeur'The authors would like to thank Angus Chu, two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and the professional language editor who polished the manuscript. This work of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute MAKErS, as part of the ITI 2021-2028 program of the University of Strasbourg, CNRS and INSERM, was supported by IdEx Unistra (ANR-10IDEX-0002), and by SFRI-STRAT'US project (ANR-20-SFRI-0012). Financial support from the FdR/SCOR Chair \u2018March\u00E9s des risques et cr\u00E9ation de valeur\u2019 is gratefully acknowledged by Pierre Pestieau. This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (DOIs: 10.6103/SHARE.w1.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w2.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w3.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w4.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w5.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w6.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w6.DBS.100, 10.6103/SHARE.w7.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w8.900, SHARE.w8ca.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w9.900, 10.6103/SHARE.w9ca900, 10.6103/SHARE.HCAP.0) see B\u00F6rsch-Supan et al. (2013) for methodological details.(1), The SHARE data collection has been funded by the European Commission, DG RTD through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812), FP7 (SHARE-PREP: GA No211909, SHARE-LEAP: GA No227822, SHARE M4: GA No261982, DASISH: GA No283646) and Horizon 2020 (SHARE-DEV3: GA No676536, SHARE-COHESION: GA No870628, SERISS: GA No654221, SSHOC: GA No823782, SHARE-COVID19: GA No101015924) and by DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion through VS 2015/0195, VS 2016/0135, VS 2018/0285, VS 2019/0332, VS 2020/0313, SHARE-EUCOV: GA No101052589 and EUCOVII: GA No101102412. Additional funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01UW1301, 01UW1801, 01UW2202), the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, BSR12-04, R01_AG052527-02, R01_AG056329-02, R01_AG063944, HHSN271201300071C, RAG052527A) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see www.share-eric.eu).The authors would like to thank Angus Chu, two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and the professional language editor who polished the manuscript. This work of the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute MAKErS, as part of the ITI 2021-2028 program of the University of Strasbourg, CNRS and INSERM, was supported by IdEx Unistra ( ANR-10IDEX-0002 ), and by SFRI-STRAT\u2019US project ( ANR-20-SFRI-0012 ). Financial support from the FdR/SCOR Chair \u2018March\u00E9s des risques et cr\u00E9ation de valeur\u2019 is gratefully acknowledged by Pierre Pestieau.

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