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Monetary Transfers from Children and the Labour Supply of Elderly Parents: Evidence from Vietnam

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  • Ha Trong Nguyen
  • Amy Y.C. Liu
  • Alison L. Booth

Abstract

In the absence of a broad-based pension scheme, the elderly in developing countries may rely on monetary transfers made by their children and on their own labour supply. This article examines whether monetary transfers from children help to reduce elderly parents' need to work. Taking the possible endogeneity of children's transfers in the parents' labour supply into account and using maximum likelihood methods and Vietnamese data, we find that monetary transfers help the elderly cope with risks associated with old age or illness. At the same time, however, monetary transfers are not sufficient to fully substitute for parents' labour supply.

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  • Ha Trong Nguyen & Amy Y.C. Liu & Alison L. Booth, 2012. "Monetary Transfers from Children and the Labour Supply of Elderly Parents: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1177-1191, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:48:y:2012:i:8:p:1177-1191
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2012.704365
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hao-yu Hu & Wei Wang & Da-wei Feng & Hua-lei Yang & Zhong-kun Zhu, 2022. "Number of Children and Monetary Transfers to Elderly Parents in Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 593-615, January.
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    4. Le, Huong Thu & Homel, Ross, 2015. "The impact of child labor on children's educational performance: Evidence from rural Vietnam," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-13.
    5. Hien, Nguyen Thi Thu, 2019. "Consequences of urban migration of adult children for the elderly left-behind in rural Vietnam," OSF Preprints zxyf8, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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