%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Marriage and the Family %D 2003 %T Assistance to Aging Parents and Parents-in-Law: Does lineage affect family allocation decisions? %A Kim Shuey %A Melissa A. Hardy %K Adult children %K Health Conditions and Status %K Healthcare %X In this analysis we used data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine how, couples organize transfers of assistance to aging parents and whether the flow of assistance is structured by family lineage. We found evidence of a tradeoff between types of assistance and a unilineal pattern of assistance. Few couples provided both time and money, and few assisted parents and parents-in-law. The determinants of assistance varied by type of care, recipient, and patterns of parental survival. Couples were more responsive to the needs of the wife's parent(s) and were less likely to exclude her parents from care even tinder circumstances of competition. Controlling for resources, African American and Hispanic couples were consistently more likely to provide assistance. %B Journal of Marriage and the Family %I 65 %V 65 %P 418-431 %G eng %N 2 %4 Aging/Caregiving/Intergenerational Transfers %$ 11982 %R 10.2307/3600087 %0 Journal Article %J J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci %D 2000 %T Pension decisions in a changing economy: gender, structure, and choice. %A Melissa A. Hardy %A Kim Shuey %K Age Factors %K Choice Behavior %K Decision making %K Female %K Humans %K Male %K Middle Aged %K Models, Economic %K Pensions %K United States %X

OBJECTIVES: As responsibility for financial security in retirement becomes more individualized, understanding the distribution and determinants of savings behavior grows in importance. Employed men and women often gain access to their pension assets when they change jobs. In this study gender differences in pre-retirement access to and disposition of accumulated pension assets are examined.

METHODS: The authors used data from the Health and Retirement Study to model pension participation, disposition of pension assets, and use of cash settlements derived from a pension plan in a previous job. Logit models provided estimates of gender differences in access to pensions and the preservation of pension funds for retirement.

RESULTS: Women were less likely to have participated in employer-sponsored pension plans; more likely to cash out accumulated pension assets when they changed jobs; and, when job changes occurred at relatively young ages, equally likely to spend the settlement. However, by their late 40s, women were more likely to save the settlement, a net gender difference that increased with age at which the settlement was received.

DISCUSSION: The structure of employment compensation continues to place women at a disadvantage. Gender differences in earnings and fringe benefits not only affect current financial status, but also cast a shadow over future financial security. Although the gender gap in pension coverage has been reduced, women with pensions have access to lower benefits and less in accumulated assets. As these continuing deficits are addressed, enhancing women's tendency to save pension assets for retirement can help them build financial security.

%B J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci %I 55B %V 55 %P S271-7 %8 2000 Sep %G eng %N 5 %L pubs_2000_Hardy_MJGSeriesB.pdf %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10985298?dopt=Abstract %4 Age Factors/Choice Behavior/Decision Making/Female/Human/Middle Age/Models, Economic/Pensions/United States %$ 4515 %R 10.1093/geronb/55.5.s271