Developing Asian countries must introduce more comprehensive public welfare programs for the elderly as their economies transition from traditional filial altruism and the extended family to parental altruism and the nuclear family.

As an economy develops, increasingly large amounts of resources are transferred from working adults, who produce more than they consume, to their parents and children, who consume more than they produce.

Gone is the time when elders and children counted as parts of the labor force—children stay in school longer, and elders spend more and more time in retirement.

Working adults in advanced economies transfer more of their income to dependent family members.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2ADwwmi

Read the working paper

https://www.adb.org/publications/intergenerational-transfers-demographic-transition-altruism

About the authors

Yoshitaka Kodais a postdoctoral fellow of the Faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

ManachayaUruyos is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University.

Siwapong Dheera-Aumpon is an assistant professor of economics, Kasetsart University, Bangkok.

Know more about ADBI’s research on aging

http://bit.ly/2hTzeMV