Do the living arrangements of older people matter for the family transfers they receive? Evidence from Senegal

Willy Adrien Yakam,Yves Carriere,Thomas LeGrand

AGEING & SOCIETY(2022)

Cited 0|Views2
No score
Abstract
In the absence of broad-based formal health insurance and social protection systems in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the family acts as the key provider of support to older people. This paper furthers our understanding of family support mechanisms in the context of low-income countries by focusing on support from outside the household, which has been less studied so far. By using the data of 3,114 people aged >= 50 from the second round of the Senegalese Poverty and Family Structure Survey, the paper examines how the living arrangements of older people are associated with receiving transfers from non-coresident kin. Our findings highlight a net advantage of women receiving net positive family transfers compared to men for some living arrangements. Results also indicate that living without a husband or an adult significantly increases the likelihood of older women receiving support from non-resident family members compared to those who live with both spouse and a younger adult child. However, these differences are not significant among older men. These results suggest that in constrained settings, decision-makers should consider older people's living arrangements and potential external family support when designing public policies towards them, so as to optimise the impact of policy and interventions on their welfare.
More
Translated text
Key words
living arrangements, family transfers, inter-household support, older people, sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal
AI Read Science
Must-Reading Tree
Example
Generate MRT to find the research sequence of this paper
Chat Paper
Summary is being generated by the instructions you defined