Nous avons cherché à identifier l’ampleur et les facteurs prédictifs de l’évolution longitudinale de l’aide financière aux parents des descendants adultes et des réseaux de transferts pendant une période de deux ans. Les analyses s’appuyent sur les données regroupées de l’Étude de la Santé et de la Retraite (1994–2000), utilisant les familles dans lesquelles les descendants adultes ont au moins un, mais pas plus de quatre frères et sœurs, qui ont fourni un soutien financier aux parents pendant deux ans. Certains changements dans le réseau d’aide surviennent dans environ 40 pour cent de ces familles au cours de la période de deux ans. Quand le changement se produit, il s’agit le plus souvent de la cessation du soutien par un enfant, suivie par l’addition d’un nouvel enfant au réseau, alors que l’échange de soutien aux enfants est relativement rare. Le changement reflète la capacité de la progéniture avant tout à fournir des soins et le fardeau créé par les besoins des parents. Cependant, la taille et la composition du réseau adulte-enfant et du groupe de soutien initial jouaient un rôle important aussi bien. Les résultats soulignent le caractère dynamique et systémique des réseaux financiers intergénérationnels.

The population of South Korea is ageing rapidly and government provision for older people is meagre. Hence the erosion of traditional family support for older people is of much concern. Yet relatively little is known about the actual financial status of elderly Koreans or the amount of economic support they receive from children. This paper addresses these issues using data from the 2006 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing. We find that almost 70 per cent of Koreans aged 65 or more years received financial transfers from children and that the transfers accounted for about a quarter of an average elder's income. While over 60 per cent of elders would be poor without private transfers, children's transfers substantially mitigate elder poverty, filling about one-quarter of the poverty gap. Furthermore, children's transfers tend to be proportionally larger to low-income parents, so elder income inequality is reduced by the transfers. Over 40 per cent of elders lived with a child and co-residence helps reduce elder poverty. By showing that Korean children still play a crucial role in providing financial old-age security, we demonstrate how important it is for the Korean government to design old-age policies that preserve the incentives for private assistance. This snapshot of today's Korea also has implications for other rapidly changing Asian countries that are following a similar trajectory.

This study has examined the flow of financial transfers between generations in Sweden, measured as financial support in the form of relatively large money transactions or gifts over 12 months. Two questions are considered: is there a net downward flow in the Swedish welfare state and, if so, are there differences according to gender and social class? The questions were tested using data from two linked and nationally representative large-scale surveys. The results show that almost all inter-generational transfers are downward, from older to younger generations. Unlike earlier studies of inter-generational transfers, the analysis focuses on inequality, and the results reveal clear class and income gradients. Both giving and receiving were more common among people in the higher social strata. A gender gradient among unmarried (single) recipients was also found, whereby unmarried women more often received financial support than unmarried men. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for social stratification and inequality. From a static or cross-sectional perspective, the results suggest that financial transfers are neutral or even equality promoting, but a dynamic or lifecourse interpretation suggests that financial transfers transmit or even reinforce class inequalities over generations.