Working Paper: NBER ID: w19100
Authors: Angus Deaton; Arthur A. Stone
Abstract: Elderly Americans who live with people under age 18 have lower life evaluations than those who do not. They also experience worse emotional outcomes, including less happiness and enjoyment, and more stress, worry, and anger. In part, these negative outcomes come from selection into living with a child, especially selection on poor health, which is associated with worse outcomes irrespective of living conditions. Yet even with controls, the elderly who live with children do worse. This is in sharp contrast to younger adults who live with children, likely their own, whose life evaluation is no different in the presence of the child once background conditions are controlled for. Parents, like elders, have enhanced negative emotions in the presence of a child, but unlike elders, also have enhanced positive emotions. In parts of the world where fertility rates are higher, the elderly do not appear to have lower life evaluations when they live with children; such living arrangements are more usual, and the selection into them is less negative. They also share with younger adults the enhanced positive and negative emotions that come with children. The misery of the elderly living with children is one of the prices of the demographic transition.
Keywords: Elderly; Wellbeing; Children; Living Arrangements
JEL Codes: D1; I31; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Elderly Americans living with individuals under 18 (J14) | Lower life evaluations (J17) |
| Elderly Americans living with individuals under 18 (J14) | Worse emotional outcomes (D91) |
| Poor health (I12) | Elderly Americans living with individuals under 18 (J14) |
| Low income (I32) | Elderly Americans living with individuals under 18 (J14) |
| Living with children (J13) | Increased levels of stress, worry, and anger (I31) |
| Living with children (J13) | Lower levels of happiness and enjoyment (I31) |
| Living with children (J13) | Worse emotional experiences among the elderly (I39) |