Disparities in Mortality and Its Consequences for Kin Availability and Intergenerational Transfers in the United States

V. Joseph Hotz , Duke University
HwaJung Choi, University of Michigan
Robert Schoeni, University of Michigan
Judith A. Seltzer, University of California, Los Angeles
Emily Wiemers, University of Massachusetts Boston

In this paper, we pursue and expand the literature on mortality disparities, kin availability, and intergenerational transfers by considering two substantive questions:1) How do disparities in mortality affect the distribution of “kin availability” across demographic groups in the United States? In particular, how does the absence of one’s parents due to death affect the availability of kin – where the latter is traditionally measured by the spatial proximity of kin – by race/ethnicity, educational attainment and geography? 2) How does the absence or reduction in the number of one’s parents due to death affect the types, incidence and magnitudes of financial and time transfers to and from one’s parents? We use the 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) main interview and the Rosters and Transfers Module data that provide for a national sample of household heads and spouses, the residential locations of each living biological or adoptive parent.

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 Presented in Session 65. Income, Wealth, and Health