Ethnic Differences in Time Transfers from Adult Children to Elderly Parents: Unobserved Heterogeneity across Families?

Examines differences across racial-ethnic groups in patterns of time transfers from middle-age adult children to their elderly parents and the degree to which heterogeneity in unobserved family-level factors may explain observed differences. Analysis of data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study for 12,253 adult respondents and their siblings supports the hypothesis that the determinants of time assistance vary across racial-ethnic groups: controlling for socioeconomic attributes of potential donors and the recipient, there is evidence of unobserved family-level heterogeneity for whites and blacks, but not for Hispanics. 7 Tables, 40 References. Adapted from the source document