ROTTEN KIDS OR MANIPULATIVE PARENTS - ARE CHILDREN OLD-AGE SECURITY IN WESTERN KENYA

Examines the results of a survey in western Kenya designed to empirically asses the types and levels of financial assistance provided to elderly relatives by children. I also investigate whether parents can influence the level of assistance their offspring provide by adapting the bargaining mode of intergenerational transfers developed by Bernheim, Shleifer and Summers. Unlike standard models of household behavior that assume that the preference of individual members are reflected in a joint utility function, this approach makes it possible to model both conflict and cooperation within the family. The article begins with a brief discussion of the modified model. This is followed by an examination of demographic and economic characteristics of elderly households residing in the west Kenya sublocation. The types of assistance provided by children are examined, and an econometric model of the determinants of the levels of assistance is developed. -from Author