Topic
What are the intergenerational resource transfer contributions of parents and non-parents in Europe? Using National Transfer and National Time Transfer Accounts for twelve countries around 2010, we go beyond public transfers (net taxes) to also value two statistically less visible transfer types in the family realm: of market goods (money) and of unpaid household labor (time). Non-parents contribute almost exclusively to public transfers. But parents additionally provide still larger private transfers: mothers mainly time, fathers mainly money. Estimating transfer stocks over the working life, the average parental/non-parental contribution ratio flips from 0.73 (public transfers alone) to 2.66 (all three transfers combined). The tax rates implicitly imposed thereby on rearing children are multiples of the value-added tax rates in place on consumption goods. The magnitude of these invisible transfer asymmetries carries multiple implications for policy debates. For instance, it raises the question whether European societies unwittingly tax their own reproduction too heavily.
About the speaker
Pieter Vanhuysse, PhD (LSE) is Full Professor of Politics and Public Policy in the Department of Political Science and Public Management and the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies of the University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
Practical information
This seminar took place on 22 May 2023, between 12.30 and 13.30.