Factors affecting intergenerational financial help and care transfers: evidence from a global ageing survey

There has been an increasing interest among social scientists with regard to the role of socioeconomic, demographic, cultural and political situations on the intergenerational financial and care transfers in the society. With the pace of rapid socioeconomic development, both population and society are now in transition in many parts of the world in which the traditional values and family dynamics are largely affected. Although some researchers attempted to explore the changing pattern of intergenerational transfers for specific geographical locations, however no global comparison has yet been made due to either inadequate data set or lack of information. Utilizing the data collected in the 2006 HSBC Global Ageing Study on the Future of Retirement, this study therefore attempts to examine important determinants of financial transfer as well as help & care transfer among individuals aged between 40 and 79 years residing across 21 countries and territories in five major regions of the world. In the present study, it has been found that respondent’s age, gender, household size, health appraisal, education, employment status, marital status, contact with generation and geographical location are key factors affecting the event of either receiving or providing financial support as well as help & care support. In order to identify robust estimators, analyses have also been performed at various levels of hierarchy such as region and country. This enables us to make more effective conclusion not only on overall population but also on specific geographic settings. Finally, some policy recommendations and future research directions are made in the paper.