| Popis: |
Numerous studies have shown that transfers of privately held resources across the generations of the vertically-extended family are common but vary in type and intensity with age and the lifecycle stage of the donor and/or recipient. Although resources typically flow from parent to child regardless of age in the U.S., middle-aged adults have a heightened and substantial risk of making transfers to their kin in both ascending and descending generations. The literature on inter-vivos transfers documents that the patterns of giving are responsive to a range of sociodemographic, economic, cultural and health attributes of both potential donor and recipients. The magnitude and direction of these effects vary with respect to the type of transfer modeled, the treatment of economic covariates, and the characterization of potential donors and recipients. Less is known about the patterns of inter-vivos transfers for developing countries, in particular for countries that lack the infrastructure for public transfers to support the elderly beyond the productive years of the population. In developing economies, characterized by scarce or nonexistent institutional support systems for old-age support, and financial markets that are largely not-available for the general population, the laterally and vertically extended family is the central institution in which investments in human capital are secured. Intra-family transfers are expected to flow from parents to children as investments in their old age security, from children to parents as repayment for past human capital investments in the child, or from children to parents in exchange for future bequests. The literature suggests that over time, transfers may flow in both directions to smooth consumption, as an expression of altruism of family members towards each other, or as repayment for services received or prior gifts. Data The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is a prospective panel study of health and aging in Mexico and nationally representative of population 50 and older in Mexico at the baseline, in 2001. MHAS was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (AG 18016). Interviews were sought with spouse/partners of sampled persons regardless of their own age. Data were collected on multiple domains of health; demographic traits, including the migration history of respondents, their parents and offspring; family networks and transfers exchanged; some work history; income, assets, and pensions; and aspects of the built environment. States with high rates of out-migration to the U.S. were over sampled. Anthropometric measures also were obtained from a 20% sub-sample of respondents. MHAS was fielded in Mexico by the INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica), the equivalent of the U.S. Census Bureau. The sampling frame for MHAS was the household listing of about 136,000 dwelling units from the 4 Quarter of the ENE-2000 (National Employment Survey), also fielded by INEGI. Hence, the weighted first wave MHAS data are both a baseline for the MHAS panel and a representative cross-section of older Mexicans. Baseline interviews were completed in 9,845 households with about 15,000 respondents. By U.S. standards, the individual non-response rate of 10.5 percent for a population based survey is very low. These data are particularly useful for the purpose of the proposed research because the survey gathers 1 MHAS data is public. The data and documentation can be obtained from the study website, www.pop.upenn.edu/mhas. |
