Determinants of Intergenerational Family Solidarity during the Great Recession: the Spanish Case.

Antonio Jesús Sánchez Fuentes,Viviana González Hincapié,Teresa López López

doi:10.17583/rasp.2019.4117

Antonio Jesús Sánchez Fuentes, Viviana González Hincapié + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.17583/rasp.2019.4117

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Abstract

In the context of an economic crisis that has affected countries in Southern Europe especially and that has called into question the public pillar of the intergenerational contract, i.e. pensions, literature has shown an increasing interest in analyzing the other intergenerational pillar, which is largely based on family solidarity and which has been insufficiently explored for the Spanish case. Therefore, based on official data provided by the Time Use Survey (TUS) and the Household Budget Survey (HBS), an effort has been made to identify, through multivariate models, the individual factors that determined certain expressions of family solidarity and their participation and intensity of time and money transfers among family members in one of the most critical moments of this crisis in Spain (2009/2010). The results question the idea that the unemployed and the retired have been net recipients during the crisis, revealing that it is insufficient to consider only a single manifestation of solidarity, the financial one, when accounting for the wide range of support and transfers that circulate among family members.

Highlights

During an economic crisis affecting countries in Southern Europe especially and that has called into question the public pillar of the intergenerational contract, literature has shown an increasing interest in analyzing the other intergenerational pillar, largely based on family solidarity and underexplored for the Spanish case
Which individual factors are significant when explaining the participation in several family solidarity manifestations that allow quantification? Among those that participate, who do so with more intensity? In this article we address these matters from a generational perspective, one that analyses the contribution of young persons, adults, the pivot generation and the elderly to this flow of resources and assistance in the form of time and money, which can be considered expressions of intergenerational family solidarity in Spain
Time and money transfers that take place among members of a family belonging to different generations and that can be considered intergenerational solidarity manifestations, have aroused a growing interest in literature and policymakers

Summary

Introduction

During an economic crisis affecting countries in Southern Europe especially and that has called into question the public pillar of the intergenerational contract, literature has shown an increasing interest in analyzing the other intergenerational pillar, largely based on family solidarity and underexplored for the Spanish case. Based on official data provided by the Time Use Survey (TUS) and the Household Budget Survey (HBS), an effort has been made to identify, the individual factors that determined certain expressions of family solidarity and their participation and intensity of time and money transfers in one of the most critical moments of this crisis in Spain (2009/2010). Se busca identificar – en base a datos del Time Use Survey (TUS) y el Household Budget Survey (HBS)- factores individuales que determinaron expresiones de solidaridad familiar, su participación e intensidad en tiempo y transferencias en uno de los momentos más críticos de la crisis en España (2009/2010). One of the aspects of family solidarity which has generated much interest over the past decades focuses on intergenerational solidarity (Bengtson, 2001), because, among other reasons, the family constitutes a privileged social sphere for the encounter between generations (Donati, 2003) enabling a bidirectional flow of transfers and resources among them

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