Martina Brandt
Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Ageing (MEA)
Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
University of Mannheim

Christian Deindl
Research Institute for Sociology
University of Cologne

Financial support and practical help between older parents and their middle-aged children vary greatly among the regions of Europe. Northern and Western Europe is characterised by a high likelihood of practical help to and financial transfers from parents, while in Southern and Eastern Europe these kinds of support are much less likely. Financial transfers to parents show an almost opposite distribution, with more children supporting a parent in Southern and Eastern welfare regimes. Using the second wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe encompassing 14 European countries conducted in 2006-07, these country differences can be linked to different social policies. Controlling for different aspects of country composition in terms of individual characteristics and family structures impacting on intergenerational support, it was found that the more services and transfers provided publicly, the more people aged 50 or more years helped their older parents sporadically, and the less monetary support they provided. On the other hand, generous public transfers enabled parents aged 64 or more years to support their offspring financially. Thus, neither "crowding in" nor "crowding out", but a modification of private transfers depending on public transfers and vice versa is found, suggesting a specialisation of private and public support.

• Deindl, Christian; Brandt, Martina (2010): Financial Support and Practical Help Between Older Parents and Their Middle-Aged Children in Europe, Ageing & Society. online pdf
• Brandt, Martina; Deindl, Christian (2010): Support to Older Parents in Eastern and Western Europe, Kakovostna starost [Good quality of old age], 13, 1 26-37
• Brandt, Martina, Deindl, Christian, "Support between parents and children and the welfare state", talk at XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology in Gothenburg, Sweden, 07/2010.
• Brandt, Martina, Deindl, Christian, "The family and the state - Intergenerational transfers in Europe", talk at ICCFR 57th annual international conference: Empowering families as sustainable partners in social policy, Malta, 03/2010.

Area: Sociology

Software:

• Stata

Links:

• http://www.share-project.org/
• http://www.mea.uni-mannheim.de/

Thomas Metz
IWR, HGS MathComp, IPW Heidelberg
Seminar für wissenschaftliche Politik Freiburg
Universität Heidelberg

The projects deals with the simulation of socially transmitted long-term party affiliations in an electorate. We draw on surveys to calculate switching rates between different parties and then use an adapted Pott's model and a Monte-Carlo approach to explicate the data. The project is part of an ongoing thesis on the application of multiagent systems (agent-based modeling) in the social sciences.

• Metz, Thomas; Heermann, Dieter W.; Agent-based modeling as research tool in the Social Sciences: An application in voting behavior; Poster presented at HGS MathComp annual colloquium, 19.11.2010.

Area: Social Science