Why Do Children Take Care of Their Elderly Parents? Are the Japanese Any Different? / Charles Yuji Horioka, Emin Gahramanov, Aziz Hayat, Xueli Tang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horioka, Charles Yuji.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gahramanov, Emin.

Hayat, Aziz.

Tang, Xueli.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w22245.

NBER working paper series no. w22245

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2016.

Summary:

In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of why individuals provide care and attention to their elderly parents using a two-period overlapping generations model with endogenous saving and a "contest success function" and test this model using micro data from a Japanese household survey, the Osaka University Preference Parameter Study. To summarize our main findings, we find that the Japanese are more likely to live with (or near) their elderly parents and/or to provide care and attention to them if they expect to receive a bequest from them, which constitutes strong support for the selfish bequest motive or the exchange motive (much stronger than in the United States), but we find that their caregiving behavior is also heavily influenced by the strength of their altruism toward their parents and social norms.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2016.