Living arrangements and the availability of intergenerational support: a comparison between Germany and France

Juergen Dorbritz, Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany
Robert Naderi, Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany

The increasing heterogeneity of living arrangements and rising childlessness in the most developed countries could lead to a decreasing availability of support for elderly people. Aim of our paper is to study the impact of living arrangements (married or cohabiting; having children or being childless) on this availability. For this purpose we carry out a micro-level analysis using the Generations and Gender Survey data from Germany and France. The availability for support will be constructed by variables like co-residence, distance and contact frequency of children and parents with different living-arrangements. Our hypotheses are: 1. The lower childlessness and the higher family-orientation in France has a positive impact on the higher availability of support for the elderly. 2. The existence of grand-children increases the chance for support for elderly parents by their children. 3. Gender has an important impact: Ties between daughters and parents and foremost mothers are stronger.