The Generational Contract in the Family: An Analysis of Transfer Regimes in Europe

Abstract

Recent research has suggested that financial transfers from parents to their adult children in the family are less likely to take place but more intense—i.e. for larger amounts—in the Southern European countries than in the Nordic ones, with the Continental European countries falling in-between the two. What remains to be examined is the variation among regimes in the social mechanisms regulating these transfers. Using data from the first wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this article shows that financial transfers have different aims and meanings across the regimes. In Southern Europe, parents support their children mainly through co-residence, and little economic support passes the walls of the house. In the Nordic countries, in contrast, parent-child co-residence is non-normative. Children leave their parents' home early and then receive direct and explicit help from them. The Continental countries fall in-between.