1. Parental housing assistance and parent-child proximity in Italy Cecilia Tomassini, Age Concern Institute of Gerontology, King’s College London, UK Douglas A. Wolf, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, USA Alessandro Rosina, ISTAT, Rome, Italy

2. Altruism vs Exchange Model (Mission Impossible …) Housing is a key point for the couple in marriage decision in Italy Parental housing assistance influences proximity? Proximity –later support of grandchildren –to facilitate parent-child contacts –to secure the provision of care in case of need Some issues

3. To assess competition among children we need information on each child. Are lone children more likely to receive parental assistance since they may represent the only primary family source of care? Some issues

4. Parental housing assistance to children – Data from the Bank of Italy (Cigno, Guiso&Jappelli 1999) Parent-child spatial proximity –Some descriptive studies in Italy (Barbagli 1997, Cioni 1997) –Few multivariate analysis (Glaser&Tomassini 2000) Wife’s parents and husband’s parents –Patrilinear or matrilinear choices in co-residence and proximity (in the US Soldo, Wolf & Henretta 1998, in Turkey Aykan&Wolf 2000) Previous studies

5. 1.To what extent do parents help children with housing? Is such help given more from a patrilinear or matrilinear direction? 2.Is residential proximity between generations related to help received from parents in purchasing a house? 3.How stable are patterns of parent-child spatial proximity over the marital life cycle? 4.Does parents’ receipt of care from children depend on their proximity to children? Research questions

6. 1998 Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie “Famiglia, soggetti sociali e condizione dell’infanzia” (Multipurpose Survey on Family and childhood conditions) Subsample of married women living in couple aged (25- 60) and their husbands (a weighted sample size of 10,260 couples) with at least one of wife’s and husband’s parents alive at the time of the marriage and one of the four alive at the moment of the interview. Data

7. Descriptive analysis

10. Dependent variable is parent-child proximity (up to 10 miles) distinguished by: 1) living near wife’s parents only; 2) living near husband’s parents only; 3) living near both sets of parents; 4) living near neither set of parents. Controlling for: age at marriage, age, education level, presence of siblings, number of children, parental survival, parent’s age and health status, parental housing assistance. Three models for couples that have been married up to 10, 20 and more than 20 years. Method

11. Multivariate analysis

12. Help and contacts

13. Previous parental housing assistance has an effect on intergenerational proximity and this effect lasts over time (it is a good investment!!!). Possible selection effect if parental assistance affects duration of child’s marriage. Discussion

14. Region of birth will be added in the model Considering the pool of siblings Conclusion and further research