Parent and Adult-child Interactions: empirical evidence from Britain

Abstract

The paper uses new data from the British Household Panel Survey to study frequency of contact of parents with their adult children, and help received by parents from them. It also investigates the extent to which adult children benefit from their parents' help, both financial and in-kind, such as childcare. The empirical analysis is motivated by a theoretical model of an efficient extended family, and a number of predictions about the impact of parents' and children's economic resources on these interactions are consistent with the model. But there are also some findings that are hard to reconcile with it or other economic theories of family interaction.