Private intergenerational transfers, family structure and health in a sub-Saharan African context

Abstract

During the last two decades, the increase in surveys aimed at quantifying monetary and non-monetary exchanges has fostered remarkable advances in measuring, modeling, and assessing the implications of intergenerational transfers at both the micro- and the macro level. This expansion in data availability, together with the conceptual development of the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) framework (Lee and Mason 2011), has led to a flourishing body of research aimed at understanding the functioning of the generational economy and the role of private and public transfers in shaping life-cycle economic flows. Extensive research from high-income contexts has shown that private transfers typically flow from members of the older generations to their children and grandchildren, while public transfers tend to flow in the opposite direction (Lee and Donehower 2011; Kluge and Vogt 2015).